shortgrass

American  

[shawrt-gras, -grahs] / ˈʃɔrtˌgræs, -ˌgrɑs /

noun

1. any of several range grasses of short stature, as buffalo grass, prevalent in semiarid regions of the Great Plains.

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Etymology

Origin of shortgrass

An Americanism dating back to 1835–45; short + grass

Example Sentences

The chestnut-collared longspur, which lives in the northern shortgrass prairie and sings as it flies.

From Seattle Times • Aug. 25, 2023

A U.S. nonprofit group is working to restore the shortgrass prairie, where bison and their ecosystem could again thrive as they once did.

From New York Times • Jan. 11, 2023

Each autumn in southeast Colorado, hordes of fuzzy, fist-sized male tarantulas emerge from their burrows to scour the shortgrass prairie for mates.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 12, 2022

The new expansion also will preserve what Haaland called one of the largest intact shortgrass prairie ecosystems within the National Park system.

From Washington Times • Oct. 5, 2022

At some, such as plots of shortgrass prairie in Colorado, there was “catastrophic loss,” reported Kate Wilkins, a grassland ecologist now at the Denver Zoo who worked with Smith.

From Science Magazine • Aug. 23, 2022