The Tigris-Euphrates alluvial salt marsh, better known as the Mesopotamian Marshes, is a Flooded Grasslands and Savannas ecoregion at the northern end of the Persian Gulf, spanning eastern Iraq and southwestern Iran where the Tigris, Euphrates, and Karun rivers spread across a vast deltaic plain. It is a mosaic of swamps, freshwater lakes, and seasonally flooded plains dominated by dense beds of reeds (Phragmites australis), cattail rushes (Typha domingensis), and papyrus sedge (Cyperus papyrus), with riparian willow (Salix acmophylla), Euphrates poplar (Populus euphratica), and tamarisk (Tamarix) fringing the islands and riverbanks. The climate is hot and arid, with extreme swings from summer highs near 50 degrees Celsius to winter lows around freezing; the marshes are fed by winter flooding and spring snowmelt from the northern mountains, then shrink during the dry summers. A globally important area for birds and the home of the smooth-coated otter, the wetlands were largely drained in the late twentieth century, partially re-flooded after 2003, and recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, though upstream dams and drought keep them fragmented. For gardeners drawn to water-margin plants, the region is the wild home of ornamental reeds, cattails, papyrus, and willows that thrive in warm, seasonally wet ground.

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