Indian grass

Sorghastrum nutans, commonly known as either Indiangrass or yellow Indiangrass, is a North American prairie grass found in the central and eastern United States and Canada, especially in the Great Plains and tallgrass prairies.
==Description==
Indiangrass is a Lawn#Warm_season_grasses|warm-season Perennial plant|perennial Tussock (grass)|bunchgrass. It is intolerant to shade. It grows tall, and is distinguished by a "rifle-sight" ligule where the leaf blade attaches to the leaf sheath. The leaf is about long.
It blooms from late summer to early fall, producing branched clusters (panicles) of spikelets. The spikelets are golden-brown during the blooming period, and each contain one perfect floret that has three large, showy yellow stamens and two feather-like stigma (botany)|stigmas. One of the two glumes at the base of the spikelets is covered in silky white hairs. The flowers are wind pollination|cross-pollinated by the wind.
The branches of pollinated flower clusters bend outwards. At maturity, the seeds fall to the ground. There are about 175,000 seeds per pound.
==Ecology==
Sorghastrum nutans is prominent in the tallgrass prairie ecosystem and the northern tall grasslands|northern, central tall grasslands|central, and Flint Hills tall grassland ecoregions, along with Andropogon gerardi|big bluestem (Andropogon gerardi), Schizachyrium scoparium|little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) and Panicum virgatum|switchgrass (Panicum virgatum). It is also common in areas of longleaf pine.
It is adapted in the United States from the southern border to Canada and from the eastern seaboard to Montana, Wyoming and Utah."Indiangrass." Plant Fact Sheet.2011. Accessed July 26, 2015
It regrows with renewed vitality after fires, so controlled burns are used, replacing extirpated large herbivores (i.e. bison), for habitat renewal.
It is a larval host to the pepper-and-salt skipper.The Xerces Society (2016), Gardening for Butterflies: How You Can Attract and Protect Beautiful, Beneficial Insects, Timber Press.
==Culture==
Indiangrass is the official state grass of both Oklahoma and South Carolina.
The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service lists the following uses for Indiangrass:
*Erosion control
*Livestock
*Pollinators
*Restoration
*Wildlife
==See also==
*Shortgrass prairie — Great Plains
*Tallgrass prairie
==References==
==External links==
*USDA Plants Profile — Sorghastrum nutans (Yellow Indiangrass)
*Missouri Botanical Garden: Sorghastrum nutans — horticultural info.
*Floridata: Yellow Indiangrass
*Blueplanetbiomes.org: Yellow Indiangrass
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Category:Panicoideae
Category:Grasses of North America
Category:Bunchgrasses of North America
Category:Warm-season grasses of North America
Category:Grasses of the United States
Category:Grasses of Canada
Category:Native grasses of the Great Plains region
Category:Flora of the United States
Category:Flora of the Canadian Prairies
Category:Flora of the Western United States
Category:Flora of the Eastern United States
Category:Flora of North America
Category:Plants described in 1903
Category:Flora without expected TNC conservation status
F
Category:State Symbols