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Grasslands cover one quarter of the earth's surface. All of the continents except Antarctica contain some type of grassland. While all grasslands are dominated by grasses, grasslands in different locations vary considerably from one another. In the United States, the greatest stretch of grassland is the prairie, extending from the Appalachians in the East to the Rocky Mountains in the West. There are three types of prairie in North
America: tallgrass prairie, mixed prairie, and shortgrass prairie.
In the tallgrass prairie, which receives the most rainfall, the prairie grasses can be
over five feet high. Moving westward, the amount of annual precipitation decreases. The
tallgrass prairie transitions to mixed prairie, with grasses between two and four feet. In
the rain shadow of the Rocky Mountains, the shortgrass prairie (also known as the plains),
supports grasses that are less than two feet tall. While the tallgrass, mixed, and shortgrass prairies contain different plant communities, they do share some characteristics:
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