Vegetation and Flora of a Sandsage Prairie Site in Finney County, Southwestern Kansas

An ecological inventory was conducted on 2000 ha of sandsage prairie in Finney County, Kansas during the summer of 1980. There were 183 plant species documented from the area. Canopy cover of shrubs, herbaceous ground cover, soil types, and species composition were used to delineate four community types. Sand sagebrush, Artemisiafilifolia, was the dominant shrub and the most distinct component of the sandsage prairie. Sporobolus cryptandrus, Bouteloua gracilis, and abundant annuals characterized the understory vegetation. In the past 15 years, much of the sandsage prairie (Kuchler, 1974) in southwestern Kansas has been converted to irrigated cropland. During the summer of 1980, a survey of the flora and vegetational communities was conducted on one of the few remaining large areas of sandsage prairie in southwestern Kansas. Such information is critical in establishing ecological effects of construction and operational activities of the electric generating facility located on the site.