The timing of rain and snowfall throughout the year has a great impact on the types of plants that grow in a given area. The next time you travel between Rawlins and Laramie, notice the types of plants you are seeing. Toward Laramie, there is a lot more grass and a lot less sagebrush. Farther west, sagebrush is plentiful.

Sagebrush is abundant in western Wyoming where a larger portion of the year’s total precipitation falls in the winter as snow.

Water accumulates in the snowpack and when it melts it can reach greater depths in the soil. The deep taproots of sagebrush are well suited to reaching this deep water. This helps sagebrush grow during the hot, dry summers.

Much of eastern Wyoming receives more dependable spring and summer precipitation than western Wyoming. This rainfall pattern is well suited to the shallower rooted grasses and forbs, and that is part of the reason grasslands with little or no sagebrush are common in eastern Wyoming.

As you travel our great state, remember that when the rain and the snow falls determines the mix of plants that exist. From the University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension Service, I’m Paul Meiman.