Common grasses of this community include prairie sandreed, western wheatgrass, blue grama, threadleaf sedge, buffalo grass, little bluestem, sand dropseed, green needlegrass, and Indian ricegrass. Forbs include scurfpea, silverleaf scurfpea, dotted gayfeather, Platte lupine, and broom snakeweed. The shrub layer is generally characterized by rabbitbrush, silver sage, and soapweed yucca. The sandsage prairie consists primarily of rolling hilly sand dunes stabilized by grasses. Characteristic forbs include stiff sunflower, prairie spiderwort, annual eriogonum, hairy goldaster, dotted gayfeather, scurfpea and eastern pricklypear.
Sand sagebrush is the primary shrub species associated with the sandsage prairie.
1989, Currier et al. 1985, Eschner et al. By the late 1930s, vegetation had occupied most of the former channel area of the North and South Platte rivers and was expanding into Platte River channels. These types vary by species composition, soils, biogeographic distribution, and the mixture of shrub species. Cottonwood is the predominant overstory plant species, and red cedar and rough-leaved dogwood prevail in the shrub layer. Other prevalent tree species in riparian forests of the Platte River include green ash, American elm, and diamond willow.