Description:
Snowstorm was developed as a synthetic cultivar using two cycles of phenotypic recurrent selection for stature, forage production, and adaptation to semiarid environments. Snowstorm traces it parentage to germplasm collected by Dr. Waldron in Uzbekistan (NPGS#, PARL 418), which included seed from remnant plants of the Uzbek landrace/population called Otavny. Otavny was described as an ecotype-specific population of the subspecies grisea, originating from the foothills of the Kirgizia region.