Grassland+Plants

Grassland plants come in a verity of sizes and colors. some of the plants found in the grasslands are wild flowers and a verity of grasses. some of the plants here are black-eye susans, big and little bluestem, indan grass, switch grass, and muc more. 

Grass Types

 * The perennial plants of the tallgrass prairie often exceed four feet in height and form a nutrient-rich sod, which includes a dense mat of rhizomes and underground stems. Drier parts of the North American prairie are characterized by shorter bunch grasses that do not have connecting root systems.

Flowers
> || Grasses are adapted to hot, dry areas: they have long, narrow leaves that lose less water than larger leaves do and their root systems are extensive and deep so that they can acquire water even during drought conditions. > Most grasses are in the family Poaceae and share the grass characteristics of narrow, linear leaves. They often have inconspicuous flowers and rhizomes or stolons (creeping roots or stems) and many have silica throughout their tissue. Silica is what sand is mainly composed of and it makes grass strong and hard to chew and digest. They are very strong growers, accumulating a large amount of biomass each growing season, and their seeds are dispersed by wind or animals. > || || Typically, fifty percent of the plants in any grassland will be grasses, making them the most common type of plant present. The other fifty percent is made up of what are often collectively called 'forbs'. 'Forbs' are what many people think of as 'wildflowers', such as coneflowers (e.g. //Ratibida pinnata//: Grey-headed Coneflower), lupines (//Lupinus perennis//) and milkweed (//Asclepsias tuberosa//). ||
 * Wildflowers that grow among the prairie grasses most commonly belong to the aster or pea family of plants, which includes sunflowers, asters, daisies, and clover. Also present in a temperate grassland are small islands of trees[[image:http://ts3.mm.bing.net/images/thumbnail.aspx?q=1265616493090&id=b84052eedccdfa7cc230a8c6aee86979&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.images.naturalengland.org.uk%2fImageLibrary%2fweb%2f22%2f22177.jpg width="204" height="300"]]The dominant and characteristic plant type in grassland ecosystems is grass![[image:http://www.hamiltonnature.org/habitats/habitat_images/koeleria.jpg width="150" height="273" align="left"]]
 * || [[image:http://www.hamiltonnature.org/habitats/habitat_images/andropogon.jpg width="133" height="241"]]Andropogon. Photo from Konza Prairie Biological Station, Kansas State University.

sources: Life In A Grassland [|http://www.ehow.com/facts_7155543_temperate-grasslands.html#ixzz1aO4SU2Lf]

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