Central Anatolian steppe
RESOLVE 725
The Central Anatolian steppe occupies the lowest reaches of Turkey's Central Anatolian plain, spanning several distinct lowland areas centered on Lake Tuz and extending across the Konya and Karapınar Plains. Its defining habitat is salt steppe, where halophytic (salt-tolerant) low shrubs and herbaceous plants dominate, including the sea lavender Limonium anatolicum alongside goosefoot relatives such as Salsola crassa and the salt-tolerant Frankenia hirsuta, while freshwater margins support reeds and nutsedges. The climate is continental and semi-arid, with cold winters, hot, dry summers, and annual precipitation generally between 400 and 500 mm, dropping toward 300 mm in rain-shadowed areas. Lake Tuz, Anatolia's largest salt lake, anchors a network of saline wetlands that shelter waterbirds such as greater flamingos, marbled teal, and white-headed ducks, alongside the great bustard and the ecoregion's flagship mammal, Williams's jerboa. Conservation is a pressing concern, as the steppe carries very little formally protected land and faces overgrazing, agricultural conversion, and water over-extraction.
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.
Collections for this ecoregion
No curated collection's plants all fit this ecoregion's zone range. We surface a collection only when every member would grow here — partial fits get filtered out rather than mislead. As the catalog and the curated set both grow, this section will fill in.