The Caspian lowland desert wraps the northern and eastern shores of the Caspian Sea across Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran, a sunken plain dropping below sea level where saltpans, wind-rippled dunes, salt domes, and clay takyrs meet the deltas of the Volga and Ural rivers. Its sparse cover is built from salt- and drought-tolerant shrubs and semi-shrubs, dominated by sagebrush (Artemisia) alongside halophytes such as tetyr (Salsola gemmascens) and sarsazan. The climate is cool semi-arid, with low annual rainfall and a wide swing between cold winters and hot summers. The ecoregion's flagship is the endemic Caspian seal, the only seal in the world to breed on both ice and land, while the river deltas and coastlines draw vast flocks of migrating waterbirds including greater flamingos and wintering coot; little of the region sits within protected areas, leaving it pressured by oil and gas development and desertification. For gardeners, the freshwater Volga Delta is famous for its summer blooms of sacred lotus.

At a glance

About the deserts & xeric shrublands biome

Arid and semi-arid lands where low, erratic rainfall and high evaporation limit vegetation to drought-adapted shrubs, succulents, and sparse grasses. Day-to-night temperature swings are large, and life is finely tuned to water scarcity.

Catalog plants suited to this ecoregion

Computed from each plant's stated USDA zone range against this ecoregion's CHELSA-derived 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