Few native herbaceous perennial warm-season legumes are available for cultivation in the southern USA. These would be useful for pastures, biomass production, wildlife plantings, rangeland reseeding, or native prairie restoration. Three native perennial legumes were selected from an initial screening of north Texas germplasm for potential domestication based on successful establishment, ease of seed harvest, and herbage production. Response to herbage removal was evaluated by measuring forage yield when clipped at 10-, 20- and 40-cm height (whenever regrowth exceeded 20 cm) over three seasons in 2 X 2 m plots with 0.5 m between plants. Tall bush-clover (Lespedeza stuevei Nutt.) was the slowest to establish but was as productive (P > 0.05) as panicled tick-clover (Desmodium paniculatum (L.) DC.) by the third year (28 g plant^-1 at the 10-cm clipping). Panicled tick-clover produced 160 g plant^-1 during the second year at the 20-cm harvest, the height at which the greatest (P < 0.05) yields were measured; by the third year at this harvest intensity, the same plants only yielded 27 g. Seed numbers, measured years two and three, were greatest (P < 0.05) for no-clip bush-clover plants (2470 seed plant^-1) during the second year and lowest (4-65 seed) for the panicled tick-clover regardless of clipping or year. Glutinous tick-clover (Desmodium glutinosum (Muhl. Ex Willd.) A.W. Wood) became reproductive in June so herbage acid detergent fiber (338 to 373 g kg^-1) was greater (P < 0.05) than the other two species which flowered primarily in September. Herbage crude protein concentrations were uniformly (P > 0.05) high (198 g kg^-1) the first year and unaffected by harvest height all three years; by the third year, however, tall bush-cover had the lowest (P < 0.05) concentration (141 g kg^-1). These three native North American legumes show some tolerance to herbage removal and potential for both forage and seed production in their region of origin.