South Carolina Symbols, Grass: Indian Grass

Adopted on August 29, 2001.

Indian Grass, Sorghastrum nutans, was designated as the official Grass of the State by Act 94, 2001.

The genus Sorghastrum has a Greek origin and means "a poor imitation of sorghum." The species name nutans, from Latin, means "nodding" or "swaying," an apt description of a plant often seen in large numbers swaying in the wind. Other common names for this plant include bushy bluestem, wood grass, wild oatgrass, and yellow Indian grass.

Indiangrass is adapted to a wide part of our country, from the Northeast, west into the high plains, Great Plains, and south to Texas. As most any grass, it grows best in deep, well-drained soils, but can be found growing on poor sand to wet clay soils. Indiangrass is a warm season grass (that term means: a grass that does not begin its growth in the spring until the soil temperature is above 50 –55 degrees and it achieves 80% of its growth in June, July and August). This grass is important to the tall-grass prairie and is a favorite food of grazing livestock. It is also hardy and can live through flooding and repeated fires.

This grass typically grows 3 to 5 feet tall, though it can reach heights of nearly 7 feet. It generally occurs in dense tufts, but it is sometimes found as single stems. Individual flowers are inconspicuous, but the pollen is produced on protruding bright yellow stamens. The fall seed heads are an attractive chestnut brown color and feel silky smooth when you run your hands gently along them. Indian grass can be identified even without the flowering stalks by the distinctive "ligule," which looks like a pair of erect, narrow, pointed lobes at the point where the leaf blade joins the stem; some people call these "rabbit ears."

Culm: Perennial erect, hollow, tall grass, 3 - 7 feet tall, nodes are fuzzy pubescent.

Blades: Flat, 12 to 24 inches long, .2 to .5 inch wide, pointed, taper to a narrow base, very rough, often glaucous, prominent midrib near the base.

Sheath: Upper shorter than the internodes, usually smooth and glabrous. Very prominent "rabbit ear" auricles.

Ligule: Membranous, thick, stiff, 2 to 4 mm long, flanked by pointed auricles.

Inflorescence: Narrow, oblong panicles, 6 to 12 inches long, that are large, dense and bronze-yellow. The apex is often nodding. At first the panicles are open, but are contracted and darker after flowering. The spikelets are born in pairs.

Spikelets: Paired. Sessile spikelets hirsute 6 to 8 mm long, lanceolate, nearly circular in cross-section, perfect. Pedicellate spikelet represented merely by a hairy pedicel at one side of the sessile spikelet. The spikelets droop, are yellowish to reddish brown and covered with reddish brown hairs toward the base.

Awns: The .5 inch awn is bent and is twisted up to the bending point. The awn is longer than the spikelet.