Steppe plants are extremely diverse, but in many of them common features can be distinguished. Among them are small, narrow leaves. In some species, they have the ability to fold during drought to protect against excessive evaporation of moisture. The color of the leaves is often grayish or bluish-green: the bright green foliage familiar to the eye is rarely seen here. Steppe plants tolerate heat and lack of rain.
According to various references, about 220 various plant species can be seen in the steppe. Many steppe plants have a branched root system that allows them to extract moisture from the ground. In the floodplains of flowing rivers, you will find willows, and in places where groundwater comes close to the surface of the earth, there are other trees and shrubs: hawthorn, Tatar maple, wild grapes, thorns, etc. In places with saline soil, they grow special steppe plants: solonchak wormwood, kermek, vault, soleros.
Surly in most of the year, the steppe is transformed in early spring. At this time, before the dry season, it is covered with a colorful carpet of early flowering plants: tulips, irises, hyacinths, crocuses, poppies. These steppe plants differ from cultivars primarily in smaller sizes. Moreover, their shape may be more bizarre - as, for example, the Schrenk tulip, one of the founders of the cultural varieties of this flower. Due to the plowing of the steppe, as well as ruthless collection of flowers, this species is listed in the Red Book of Russia. The dwarf iris of the steppe, like the Schrenk tulip, can have flowers of various shades, from yellow to purple. This species is also classified as endangered.
Until that moment, when the heat comes, the bright steppe flowers have time to give seeds. Nutrients are stored in their tubers that will allow them to bloom next year. There comes a turn of plants habitual to drought: fescue, feather grass, wormwood. The fescue (Valis fescue) is an upright grass up to half a meter high. This plant serves as feed for horses and small livestock and is one of the main pasture plants in the steppe zone (fescue is unsuitable for harvesting for the future). Feather grass, a typical representative of the steppe flora, is a perennial grass with a short rhizome and narrow, long leaves resembling a wire. In total, about 400 species of this genus, some of them are under protection. The main enemy of the feather grass is uncontrolled cattle grazing, during which this plant is simply trampled. As for wormwood, in the steppe, along with other plants, almost all its species are found (there are more than 180 of them). Continuous wormwood thickets form usually low varieties - for example, wormwood, drooping, seaside and others.
Individual steppe plants (for example, kermek) after drying form the so-called tumbleweed. At the end of summer, the dried stalk of kermek breaks off the roots with a gust of wind and rolls along the ground, scattering seeds along the way. Other stems and branches can cling to it: as a result, a rather impressive dry lump is obtained. Kermek ordinary blooms pink, purple or yellow small flowers. Based on it, many cultivars that are widely used in landscape design are currently bred. Species of the genus Sveda, widespread on solonchak soils - small-leaved and creeping - are, respectively, a small shrub and an annual plant with reddening stems. They are readily eaten by camels. Like them, soleros also serves as livestock feed in the fall-winter season. Soda was previously mined from his ash.
All steppe plants have their own characteristics, allowing them to survive in conditions of heat and lack of moisture. These include powerful roots, early flowering in individual species, narrow leaves, etc.