Shortgrass prairie

The shortgrass prairie ecosystem of the North American Great Plains is a prairie that formerly encompassed lands from the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains east to Nebraska, including rangelands in Colorado and Kansas, and extending to the south through the high plains of Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico.

These rangelands were formerly maintained by grazing pressure of American bison, the keystone species; the dominant grasses are grama grass and buffalo grass. The semi-arid continental climate receives on average less rainfall than that which supports the tallgrass prairie formerly to the east.