Central Great Plains

The Central Great Plains run through central Kansas and Nebraska into northern Oklahoma, covering Wichita, Salina, Hastings, and Enid. This is the mixed-grass transition between the tallgrass prairie to the east and the shortgrass High Plains to the west, so rainfall drops noticeably as you move across it. Natives such as Missouri primrose, prairie milkweed, and blackfoot daisy are built for that middle ground and hold up through wind, hail, and a dry late summer.

Conditions: Deep loam, sometimes over caliche, 22–32 inches of rain falling mostly in spring and early summer, high wind, hot dry late summers.

Cities and areas: Wichita, Salina, Hastings, Enid, Grand Island, Dodge City.