Switchgrass

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is an erect, warm-season perennial whose native habitat originally included the prairies, open woods, brackish marches, and pinewoods (Pinus spp.) of most of North America except for the areas west of the Rocky Mountains and north of 55°N lat. (Hitchcock, 1951; Stubbendieck et aI., 1991). It is a polymorphic species with two distinct ecotypes, lowland and upland (Brunken and Estes, 1975), and with two major ploidy levels, tetraploid and octaploid (Hopkins et al, 1996; Hultquist et aI., 1996, 1997). The ecotypes are cross-fertile when plants with the same ploidy level are intermated (Martinez et aI., 2001). Ecotypes and cytotypes of switchgrass are classified as a single species