This dry grassland community usually occurs on steep south- or west-facing slopes or at the summits of river bluffs with sandstone or dolomite bedrock near the surface. Short to medium-sized prairie grasses such as little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), side-oats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula), hairy grama (Bouteloua hirsuta), and prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis) are the dominants in this community. Common shrubs and forbs include leadplant (Amorpha canescens), silky aster (Symphyotrichum sericeum), flowering spurge (Euphorbia corollata), purple prairie-clover (Dalea purpureum), cylindrical blazing-star (Liatris cylindracea), and gray goldenrod (Solidago nemoralis). Stands on knolls in the Kettle Moraine region of southeastern Wisconsin and on bluffs along the St. Croix River on the Minnesota-Wisconsin border occur on gravelly substrates and may warrant recognition as distinctive subtypes of dry prairie.
Although a relatively uncommon natural community, dry prairie is better represented in today's landscape than any other prairie community because it occurs on sites that are not well suited to other uses. However, dry prairie is more abundant in Wisconsin than in any other state in the in the Upper Midwest due to the our unique topography, including steep-sided bluffs in the extensive Driftless Area, the rough terrain of the interlobate Kettle Moraine region, and the north-south orientation of several major river valleys such as the Mississippi, the Chippewa, and the St. Croix. These topographic attributes provide suitable sites for the development and persistence of this prairie type.
