Konza prairie contains over 550 vascular plant species, of which, only a few have been closely studied. Predicted impacts of climate change on the tallgrass prairie region increase the importance of understanding how native tallgrass prairie species are likely to respond to future changes in water availability and increased air temperatures. Understanding which traits are the best predictors of relative abundance along a continuum of water availability (well watered to water stressed) will aid in the prediction of plant community structure under altered temperature-precipitation regimes. In this research, both anatomical and physiological measurements were taken on nearly 120 species of herbaceous tallgrass prairie plants grown from seed in a growth chamber. Gas exchange measurements including transpiration rate, photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance to vapor, and intercellular CO2 concentration were taken under optimal light, temperature, and humidity conditions. All plants were exposed to a dry-down period and were monitored until conductance fell to zero. At this point, water potential (Ψcrit) was measured and the plants were harvested to measure root length, diameter, volume, and mass, leaf area, leaf tissue density, root tissue density, and root to shoot ratio. Traits were compared using pair-wise bivariate analyses and principal component analyses (PCA). Clear differences were detected between grass and forb functional groups and a clumped dispersion pattern was seen in the PCA. The rotated factor pattern suggested a dichotomy between dry-adapted plants with thin, dense leaves and roots, highly negative Ψcrit, and large plant size and hydrophiles which have the opposite profile. A second axis offers more separation based on high photosynthetic rate, high conductance rate, and leaf posture, but fails to provide a distinction between C3 and C4 species. Using the LTER datasets from Konza Prairie, these traits will be compared to relative abundance data to detect key determinant traits or suites of traits. Future work will incorporate stomatal characteristics including density and abaxial/adaxial ratios as well as investigate the role of landscape heterogeneity as determinants of these characteristics.