Shrubs
Big sagebrush
The gray-green shrub of Utah's open valleys and basins, and essential to sage grouse.
Blue grama
A low native grass with seed heads that look like eyelashes.
Blue grama is a low native grass of open plains, mesas, foothills and woodlands, from about 3,500 to 8,000 feet in Utah. Its curved, comb-like seed heads look like eyelashes, the easiest way to recognize it.
It is a warm-season grass that starts growing in May or June and flowers in July and August, and grows where summer rain makes up much of the year's precipitation. At Arches it is a sod-forming perennial that usually grows with galleta. It withstands heavy grazing and drought and helps hold soil against wind.
Seeing it
Look for the eyelash seed heads in late summer.