PLANTS OF THE SOUTH DAKOTA 

 SAND HILLS 



By Prof. S. S. Visher. 



'ERY few realize that the Nebraska sandhill formation 



^ reaches into the Pine Ridge Reservation of south-central 

 South Dakota. Since no botanist had collected in the South 

 Dakota sandhills it was believed that a considerable number 

 of species could be added to the flora of the State by a study 

 of that region and in consequence I visited the area for the 

 State Geological and Biological Survey in August, 1911, and 

 added about fifty species to the State flora. 



Sandhills as seen from the distance are not inviting; they 

 appear as a low line of similar yellow hills, or, if one can look 

 down from a divide, as we first did, a complex of irregularly 

 arranged dunes with here and there the glimmer of a tiny pond. 

 The brightness of a patch of freshty exposed sand, or the dark- 

 ness of a marsh filled with vegetation alone break the monot- 

 onous drab of sand and shrub. As the hills are approached smaU 

 "ranches" are noticed just this side of the line of frontier dunes 

 and cattle may be seen wandering about nearby. 



It is only when one gets within the dune district, and sees 

 the variety of the vegetation that the reason for the reputation 

 that sandhill districts have among botanists and picnickers be- 

 comes evident. One quickly notes the striking difference be- 

 tween the almost level, dry clay plains covered with its carpet of 

 short "buffalo grass" and the rough sandhills with their tall 

 clumps of "bunch grass," many fruiting shrubs and narrow 



