Species Production Guides

This section consists of specific information on seed production for selected species in the following functional groups: forbs (wildflowers), legumes, warm season grasses, cool season grasses, sedges, and woody species (prairie shrubs). Each species production guide includes a description of the species (with photos), its habitat, range map, and conservation status. 

Recommendations for stand establishment, management, seed harvest, and seed cleaning are provided. These are based primarily on direct experience at the Tallgrass Prairie Center, together with published information from the NRCS Plant Materials Program, scientific publications, personal communication with other native seed growers, and publicly available databases such as the Seed Information Database and the Propagation Protocols Database of the Native Plant Network. A graph of potential seed yields is provided in each guide, based on harvest records from seed production plots at the Tallgrass Prairie Center. 

Each species guide is provided as both a webpage and a printable file (pdf). If you prefer to work with a print version, we encourage you to print pdfs of the species you need and organize them in a binder.

This section is a work in progress. We will continue to add new species guides as they are completed. If you have comments, questions or would like to share propagation information for potential inclusion in these guides, please email laura.walter@uni.edu.