Native Warm Season Grasses in the National Plant Germplasm System.

The USDA National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) warm-season grass collection which is maintained in Griffin, Georgia currently has over 7300 accessions of which less than ten percent of the collection can be classified as native grass material.  This native grass material has been collected from different areas of the United States by various cooperators dating back to the 1950s.  The species maintained include Andropogon gerardii (big bluestem), A. hallii (sand bluestem), Bouteloua gracilis (blue grama), B. eriopoda (black grama), B. curtipendula (side-oats grama), Schizachyrium scoparium (little bluestem), Panicum virgatum (switchgrass) and Sorghastrum nutans (indiangrass).  The majority of the material has been collected in the western states including Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, North and South Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming.  There is a need to collect germplasm from other areas of the U.S. that are under-represented in the collection.  Evidence in the literature demonstrates that there are genetic differences in material collected from different regions of the U.S.  Recent efforts to acquire material through collection trips and donations has greatly increases both the quantity and diversity of native grasses in the NPGS collection.  As interest in native grass research increases, the need to acquire additional accessions to add to the collection becomes more important as well as to increase the diversity of the material.