In Tripsacum dactyloides, an ancestor of modern day maize, genes that control floral development have not been previously described. A research program to identify and analyze the genes that control and regulate floral development in Tripsacum, has been undertaken through the bioinformatics analysis of Tripsacum cDNA libraries and suppression subtractive EST libraries of stage- and developmentally specific Tripsacum floral tissue. Comparative analysis of data has revealed numerous genes previously described within other floral genomes as well as unique gene sequences. Attempts have been made to characterize the unique genes through analysis of conserved domains. Results of these analyzes will be presented.