Introduced plants, grazing and burning have had a heavy impact on the original vegetation, of which there are remnant communities of Poa and Stipa species at the western end of the island, as well as patches of Melaleuca and Casuarina scrub.
Some food found in their cheek pouches are: seeds of needle grass (Stipa), bind weed, sandbur grass, a small bean (probably Astragulus), and sedge (Cyperus).
The northern section of the island is infested with African Boxthorn, with much of the rest covered by Poa and Stipa grassland.
Spores produced in the aecia are referred to as aeciospores and are responsible for infecting the alternate host plant (a grass species: Koeleria, Trisetum, or Stipa).
High exposure causes the limits of tree growth to be quite low at about 2000 metres, above which an extensive alpine grassland dominated by various species of Stipa predominates.
Stipa | Stipa pennata |
The shore of the lake is covered with ichu (stipa ichu), qiwuña (polylepis sp), shunqu shunqu (stangea erikae), kuñaq or botoncillo (werneria dactylophylla), lliqllish qura (werneria nubigea), inka waraqu (opuntia flocossa), rima rima (krapfia weberbaueri) and tawlli machu (lupinus weberbaueri).
The vegetation is open shrubland and grasslands mainly dominated by Stipa grasses and Kobresia species ("bog sedges").
Like all equids, kiangs are herbivores, feeding on grasses and sedges, especially Stipa, but also including other local plants such as bog sedges, Carex, and meadow grass.
In the steppe areas of the island, the vegetation consists mostly of species of Stipa and Nassella.