Short Dry Grass is a pale, straw-colored decorative plant that naturally generates across deserts and every badlands variant in Minecraft, including wooded badlands and eroded badlands. Shears or the Silk Touch enchantment are the only harvest methods that make Short Dry Grass drop itself; broken by hand, the plant yields nothing. Bone meal applied to a neighboring Tall Dry Grass sprout spreads fresh Short Dry Grass into adjacent dirt, which makes the decoration fully renewable. Hardness and blast resistance both read 0, so creepers and TNT clear Short Dry Grass without effort.

Short Dry Grass earns a place in arid, western, and post-apocalyptic builds where green foliage would look out of place — pair the plant with sand, red sand, and terracotta for authentic desert outpost scenery. Lava ignites Short Dry Grass, and the flames spread to neighboring flammable blocks, so keep desert scenery clear of nether fire pits and ghast ranges. Bedrock Edition snowlogs Short Dry Grass, letting snow settle onto the plant for a frozen-desert look absent from Java Edition. A stack of 64 fits in one inventory slot, and shears harvest Short Dry Grass fast enough to stockpile plenty for scattering around dead bushes and cacti.