The central Great Plains of the United States is an area distinctive in its plant growth and native plant Species. It was the native home of the great herds of buffalo and has been known since the advent of the white man as the short grass country. Native vegetation, except along natural waterways, is confined largely to nonwoody species; a few notable exceptions are sagebrush, greasewood, cactus, and yucca. The region is characterized by low annual rainfall, high wind movement, and low relative humidity. The central Great Plains region and its annual rainfall lines are shown in figure 1.

Because of the harshness of the climate most native plant species behave as herbaceous perennials, in which the plant survives the winter as various types of underground roots and rootstocks. The main feature of the winter that limits survival of plants is not the cold tempera ture alone, but the combination of cold, wind, and low humidity often associated with low soil moisture. Unless plants have developed special defenses to meet these climatic conditions-such as small numbers of thinly scattered lenticels and leaves, sunken or protected stomata, or the ability to survive as underground root parts-they become desiccated and suffer from killback, especially during the winter. Because of their ability to survive the winters of the Central Great Plains, the group of nonwoody plants widely known as herbaceous perennials have a definite place in ornamental plantings within the region. They are especially important since the number of woody ornamentals adaptable to the area is limited.

This report summarizes herbaceous perennial trials at the Cheyenne Horticultural Field Station, which is representative of some of the most difficult growing conditions to be found in the Central Great Plains region. Successful perennials at Cheyenne should be adapted to most of the Central Great Plains region and are worthy of trial in the entire Great Plains region.

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