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Summer Wildflowers of the Sandhills

July 5, 2018 NEBRASKAland Magazine

Blooms on the Dunes

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yucca plant
Yucca (Yucca glauca) adorns a sand dune in Cherry County. Also called soapweed, the plant’s crushed roots, when agitated in water, produce a lather used as a shampoo by Great Plains tribes.

Photo and story by Gerry Steinauer, Botonist

From many Sandhills dune tops, one can see prairie stretching to the horizons. North America’s largest sand dune field, the wind-whipped Sandhills, covers more than 20,000 square miles of north-central Nebraska, ranging from low and rolling to steep and towering. The Sandhills is also our nation’s most intact grassland ecosystem – the wildflower-rich prairie, a vestige of times past.

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The sun sets on a patch of plains sunflower (Helianthus petiolaris) on the Niobrara Valley Preserve. This sand-loving annual can be prolific on dunes recently disturbed by fire or heavy grazing. Sharp-tailed grouse, rodents and other wildlife cherish its seeds.
The sun sets on a patch of plains sunflower (Helianthus petiolaris) on the Niobrara Valley Preserve. This sand-loving annual can be prolific on dunes recently disturbed by fire or heavy grazing. Sharp-tailed grouse, rodents and other wildlife cherish its seeds.
In 1795, James Mackay, working for the Upper Missouri Company, led the first European expedition into the heart of the Sandhills. He was not impressed, describing “a great desert of drifting sand, without trees, soil, rock, water, or animals of any kind.” He and other explorers, whose negative attitudes were possibly shaped by the difficult travel on loose sands or the impacts of drought, branded the region a “no-man’s land.”

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A member of the aster family, nippleweed (Thelesperma filifolium) is common on dry, sandy and gravelly soils on the Sandhills periphery. The name refers to the nipple-like shape of the joined bracts found below the petals.
A member of the aster family, nippleweed (Thelesperma filifolium) is common on dry, sandy and gravelly soils on the Sandhills periphery. The name refers to the nipple-like shape of the joined bracts found below the petals.

Deterred, it was not until about 1880 that cattlemen and their herds began drifting into the Sandhills and, to their surprise, found plentiful water and grass to fatten their cattle. Ranching has remained the region’s predominant land use; the rugged dunes, for the most part, have kept farmers at bay.

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In late spring and early summer, colonies of shell-leaf penstemon (Penstemon grandiflorus) can tint the dunes pink to lavender. This species is found in prairies nearly statewide, preferring sandy soils.
In late spring and early summer, colonies of shell-leaf penstemon (Penstemon grandiflorus) can tint the dunes pink to lavender. This species is found in prairies nearly statewide, preferring sandy soils.

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A member of the aster family, nippleweed (Thelesperma filifolium) is common on dry, sandy and gravelly soils on the Sandhills periphery. The name refers to the nipple-like shape of the joined bracts found below the petals.
A member of the aster family, nippleweed (Thelesperma filifolium) is common on dry, sandy and gravelly soils on the Sandhills periphery. The name refers to the nipple-like shape of the joined bracts found below the petals.

Having suffered little from farming, judiciously grazed, and growing on droughty soils resistant to non-native plants, the region’s flora has remained near pristine. The Sandhills is home to nearly 700 native plant species. This includes wildflowers whose blooms dapple the grassy dunes in varied colors from mid-April into October, but summer is the peak of floral display.■

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Showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa) is common on sandy soils throughout the western two-thirds of Nebraska, inhabiting prairies, roadsides and crop fields.
Showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa) is common on sandy soils throughout the western two-thirds of Nebraska, inhabiting prairies, roadsides and crop fields.

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Early morning sunlight illuminates the petals of bigroot prickly-pear (Opuntia humifusa). This large-padded cactus is found on dry dunes throughout the Sandhills.
Early morning sunlight illuminates the petals of bigroot prickly-pear (Opuntia humifusa). This large-padded cactus is found on dry dunes throughout the Sandhills.

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A prairie rose (Rosa arkansana) flowers near a lichen-encrusted bison skull in the bison pasture on The Nature Conservancy’s Niobrara Valley Preserve in Brown County. This rose graces prairies statewide.
A prairie rose (Rosa arkansana) flowers near a lichen-encrusted bison skull in the bison pasture on The Nature Conservancy’s Niobrara Valley Preserve in Brown County. This rose graces prairies statewide.

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