The USDA Warm Season Grass Collection: Opportunities for Ornamental Breeding, Poster Board #412

The National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) maintains a diverse collection of warm-season grass germplasm that can provide the material needed for research and plant breeding projects.   The warm-season grass germplasm collection contains over 7200 accessions representing 102 genera and 482 species that have been collected from 103 different countries.  The collection includes many species of forage, turf, ornamental and native grasses.  Most species are maintained as seed, but there are several species maintained clonally.  Popular ornamental warm season grass genera such as Pennisetum can be found in the collection, but lesser known taxons such as Themeda, Triraphis, and Anthephora show potential for ornamental breeding.  The collection also contains numerous native grass species inluding switchgrass, big bluestem, sand bluestem, little bluestem, indiangrass, blue grama, black grama, and side oats grama.  For a complete listing of germplasm in the collection, visit the NPGS website at www.ars-grin.gov/npgs.  The purpose of the collection is for the preservation of warm-season grass gerplasm for future generations and is freely distributed for research\breeding purposes.  Data associated with each accession, including passport data, descriptor data, and characterization data, is managed through the Genetic Resources Information Network, and is available on the NPGS website.