Vegetation
The 19,600 square miles of the Nebraska Sandhills is one of the largest stabilized dune regions in the world. A unique combination of plant species inhabits this area. The Sandhills are a meeting ground for plants found in 5 major ecosystems, including the Western conifer forest, Eastern deciduous forest, Northern boreal forest, the short grass prairie, and the tallgrass prairie. There are 720 species (670 native and 50 introduced) of vascular plants that make up what is known as the Sandhills Prairie.
Topography, soil type, and available soil moisture are essential factors in determining what plants live in a particular locality. The coarse, dry sand of the dune tops is ideal for deep-rooted warm-season grasses, including sand bluestem, prairie sandreed, switchgrass, little bluestem, and Indian grass. Dry interdunal valleys are characterized by finer textured sands, which tend to hold water closer to the surface. These areas boast cool-season grasses such as wheatgrass and needleandthread. However, warm-season grasses such as blue grama, big bluestem, and little bluestem inhabit these areas. Forbs, or broad-leafed plants, are typically perennial and may include milkweeds, sunflowers, purple prairie clover, spurges, penstemons, puccoons, cacti, and members of the daisy, aster, and pea families. Low shrubs may include sand cherry, lead plant, poison ivy, Arkansas rose, soapweed, and wild plum thickets.
Native Sandhills prairie is dominated by deep-rooted, warm-season grasses and forbs.
(Photo by: Ashley Garrelts; Sandhills Task Force)
Areas where water is readily available can be characterized by two types of plant communities--meadow communities and marsh communities. Meadow communities occur in expansive flat areas between dunes, and plant species present vary depending on available water. Well-watered but not soggy areas, where soils tend to be fine in texture and have some organic matter, are classified as meadows. The plant species in these areas typically form dense sods, and the community is useful in producing hay. Plants include wheatgrass, needleandthread, porcupine grass, Canada wildrye, prairie cordgrass, switchgrass, and a strong forb plant community. Shrubby species such as willow and false indigo may live along the wetter edges. Plant species present are relatively dependent on the type of hay operation employed by the ranch. Ranches that choose to continuously harvest hay each year will have a different plant composition than those that may utilize grazing animals to harvest forage.
Hay Meadows are common in the broad valleys between dunes.
(Photo by: Chad Christiansen, US Fish and Wildlife Service)
Marsh communities typically are characterized as wetter than hay meadows but are also found in flat areas between dunes. Plant species in these areas vary considerably from locality to locality depending on soil depth, the constancy of water supply, and water quality. Grass and grass-like plants, including common reedgrass, reed canary grass, prairie cordgrass, cattails, bulrushes, and sedges dominate these areas. Forbs include swamp milkweed, smartweed, and several species of arrowhead.
The dune, hay meadow, and marsh plant communities are the most extensive areas across the Sandhills. However, two other plant communities are essential to the ecology of the Sandhills--the blowout community and what is known as go-back land. Blowouts are distinct areas across the landscape where the sand actively moves. While most of the area is void of plants, blowout grass, sand muhly, lemon scurf pea, and blowout penstemon have adapted to these sites. Blowout, or Hayden's penstemon, is endemic to the Sandhills and endangered. This plant is often one of the first species to establish in newly formed blowouts. Still, it is an inferior competitor to other plant species, resulting in its rarity as it is pushed out of the plant community as the blowout begins to heal. Blowouts have decreased dramatically due to more controlled grazing and a decrease in fire occurrence; thus, the habitat conducive to the establishment of blowout penstemon has also decreased.
Blowout penstemon is a species of beardstongue and is a warm-season perennial plant.
(Photo by: Melvin Nenneman, US Fish and Wildlife Service).
Go-back land is classified as land that was farmed, but has returned to native vegetation. During settlement, pioneers would readily till dry, flat areas between dunes for planting crops. Still, as farming became less profitable in the drier Sandhill regions, native species returned to these areas. Today these flat expanses of prairie are characterized by a dominance of little bluestem. Other warm-season grasses are present but in simple abundance.
Trees are rare across the Sandhills but do occur, particularly around homesteads, near lakes, and along river bottoms. Cottonwood, green ash, boxelder, hackberry, cedar, plum, chokecherry, ponderosa pine, bur oak, paper birch, and American elm occur in areas favorable to tree growth. Very few species of trees spread out into the drier uplands of the Sandhills, with the exception of plum, hackberry, and chokecherry. These trees can form thickets with other shrub species to provide food and cover for many wildlife species. Eastern red cedar will also spread into the uplands and has become an issue for decreasing the value of grass-dominated rangelands. Mass plantings of this tree for windbreak use across the Sandhills, and the decrease in fire, have led to the aggressive spread of Eastern red cedar. The Sandhills Taskforce spends thousands of dollars each year helping landowners deal with this issue.
Eastern red cedar can aggressively invade the upland Sandhills prairie.
(Photo by: Ashley Garrelts; Sandhills Task Force)
In more than just the emotions it calls forth, the region is a land of contrasts, unlike the broad plains that surround it, a land marked by a mixture of opposites. At the same time wet and dry, it is simple and homogeneous, yet complex and varied. It is a western land filled with species from the east, north, and south.
--An Atlas of the Sandhills
