The Fayette Prairie is a southwestern extension of the Midgrass Prairie Province.
The structure of this association is a midgrass prairie with widely scattered individual mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) or oak (Quercus sp.) trees and clumps of prickly pear (Opuntia lindheimeri).
The increased availability of soil moisture on the sands allows grasses to develop into a midgrass prairie rather than the discontinuous canopy of short- and midgrasses common to adjacent loams and clays.
The structure of this association is a midgrass prairie with seacoast bluestem in patches and balsamscale in clumps.
Understory is poorly developed except where the oak canopy is broken, in which case a patch of midgrass prairie forms, dominated by little bluestem.
The midgrass subdominants vary from site to site, but silver bluestem is most common.
Areas dominated by midgrasses or mesquite or both occur as breaks and extensions into these oak strips and as patches within and between groves.
The herbaceous strata generally consists of an upper strata dominated by tall forbs and scattered clumps of midgrasses, and a lower strata dominated by forbs and shortgrasses.
Lower strata shrubs, generally prickly pear, occur in clumps within a moderate to dense stand of midgrasses and forbs.
The herbaceous understory consists of a discontinuous canopy of shortgrasses with scattered clumps of midgrasses and coarse bunchgrasses.
There is generally a mostly continuous cover of shortgrasses, with scattered clumps of midgrasses. Near the coast, amargosa becomes important, forming almost solid stands on some sites.
Scattered midgrasses occur, primarily in the deeper soil and litter on the immediate upslope side of the dominant shrubs.
