Western Wheatgrass can tolerate many stressful environments including saline and saline-sodic soils, drought, and flooding. It is very cold hardy, shade tolerant, and grazing resistant. Western Wheatgrass greens up in March or April, matures in August, and goes dormant in early winter. In native areas it is typically found with blue grama, buffalograss, needlegrasses, rough fescue, and blue junegrass. Western Wheatgrass is moderately palatable prior to maturity to many classes of wildlife and livestock.