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Semidesert & Arid Grassland Plants

Plants have adapted to nearly every world climate and a number of them do very well in semidesert and arid grassland. Grasslands get little rainfall and have poor soil, so there are very few trees. Deserts get even less rainfall and have few plants at all; the ones they do have must be very tough.

Sunflower Family
- Rosin weed is a member of the sunflower family and has yellow flowers in a narrow cluster. The upper leaves have an odd, dish-shaped gland that gives the plant its botanical name of Calycadenia truncata ("adenos" means gland). It grows from 1 to 4 inches high and grows from southern Oregon to central California. The snakehead is also a member of the sunflower family. Snakehead grows from 4 to 20 inches high and has milky sap and yellow flowers with rays. It grows from central California to Baja California to Utah and Arizona. The flower's bracts have parchmentlike edges and a central band that looks like a serpent's scales and the bud looks like a snake's head.
Amaryllis Family
- The century plant doesn't take a century to flower.
  
  Parry's century plant is an agave that looks like a large candelabrum that grows from a rosette of thick leaves. It's a member of the amaryllis family. It can grow from 10 to 14 feet tall. Its open flowers are yellow and bloom from June to August. It ranges from central Arizona to west Texas to northern Mexico. The plant does take a long time to flower but not a century. The century plant was important to southwestern Native Americans by providing food, beverages, fiber, soap, medicine and lances. Tequila and other alcoholic drinks are made from the juice of the Mexican species. The rain lily, also of the amaryllis family, looks like a daffodil but is smaller. It grows to 9 inches long and flowers from April to July from southern Arizona to west Texas and northern Mexican. Its botanical name, Zephyranthes, means "flower of the west wind." The flowers open soon after it rains.
Nonnative Plants
- Common ice plant is a succulent creeper that grows about 3 inches high and flowers from March to October. It's found in the southern half of California to Baja California, and was probably brought to North America from southern Europe and Africa. It's unusual in that it has beads on its stems that swell with water and can look like frost.
Woolly or Hairy Plants
- The Crescent Milkvetch is an astragulus. It's gray and hairy with red violet or lavender pea-type flowers. It grows from 2 to 10 inches high and the flowers bloom from March to June. It grows from southern Nevada, to western Colorado, central New Mexico and extreme western Texas. Golden Yarrow is also a gray, woolly, leafy plant with short leafless stalks that bear yellow flower heads. It blooms from May through July. It grows from British Columbia to southern California and western Nevada, and east to northeastern Oregon and western Montana.

Nature