The Whitman Mission is located on the southern extreme of the Palouse Prairie Region in eastern Washington state. Originally, this prairie was dominated by perennial grasses, principally bluebunch wheatgrass. On the floodplains along the Walla Walla River and nearby Mill Creek, a narrow plant community consisting of dense tangled thickets of willows, cottonwoods, wild dogwoods, blackberries, elderberries, and other species common to riparian areas probably occurred.

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