The California Central Valley grasslands fill the long lowland between the Sierra Nevada to the east and the Coast Ranges to the west, spanning the Sacramento Valley in the north and the San Joaquin Valley in the south. The climate is Mediterranean, with most rain falling in winter and conditions growing drier from north to south and on the western, rain-shadowed side. Historically a mosaic of perennial bunchgrass prairie, oak savanna, vernal pools, and riparian woodland, the region is now largely converted to farmland and dominated by introduced annual grasses. It is one of North America's most altered grasslands: less than 1% of native grassland remains and only about 4% is protected.

At a glance

About the temperate grasslands, savannas & shrublands biome

Temperate prairies, steppes, and pampas of grasses and forbs with few trees, under continental climates of hot summers and cold winters. Their deep, fertile soils have made them among the most extensively converted biomes for agriculture.

National refinement sub-regions

Catalog plants suited to this ecoregion

Computed from each plant's stated USDA zone range against this ecoregion's USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 (1991-2020 climatology) via ArcGIS FeatureServer published current zone range, with the CHELSA mid-century warming delta applied for the projection. Plants whose stated range falls outside both the current and projected zone end up dropped; the rest land in one of the three buckets below.

Collections for this ecoregion

Curated multi-plant collections whose members all fit this ecoregion's zone range — no won't-grow members smuggled in. Overall fit class shown per collection is the weakest link across its members.

Related ecoregions