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The germination characteristics are key parameters to elucidate how plants respond to environmental global changes, especially to the global climate change. Certain plant traits may determine the dynamics of vegetation as well as which species may become dominant. As a part of a long term project on the adaptation of plants to the climate change, the aim of this work was to compare germination velocity and seedling root:shoot ratio (R:S) on 16 grass species. Six exotic grass species and 10 natives were selected. Seed was collected from different ecosystems during 2014-2015. A total of 30 seeds were placed in a Petri dish, watered and placed into a germinator at 28�2 �C. Four replications per species were set. Germination seeds were counted every day and they were then discarded to facilitate further counting. In addition, root and shoot length were measured on seedlings of 7 days of age. There were significant differences on the germination velocity and R:S among (P<0.05) the species evaluated.�Leptochloa dubia, Bouteloua curtipendula�and�Eragrostis curvula�presented high germination velocities with values of 9.06, 6.23, and 6.35, respectively; compared to values of 0.31 for�E. lehmanniana, 0.55 for�E. echinocloidea, and 0.68 for�B. eriopoda. High proportions of R:S were observed on�Muhlenbergia rigida�with 4.10 and�Melinis repens�with 2.73; compared to values of 0.55 for��E. echinocloidea.�A clear pattern was not observed for native and exotic species; however, these results, together with future trails, will be taken into account to determine which species may be more effective to get established under the conditions of the scenarios predicted for the global climate change.