The Central Asian northern desert is a vast cold-desert ecoregion of roughly 663,900 square kilometers sprawled across disjunct tracts of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, with smaller reaches into Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, taking in the Mangyshlak Peninsula, the Ustyurt Plateau, and the country around Lake Balkhash. Its vegetation is dominated by shrubs and semi-shrubs tolerant of saline soils, especially sagebrush (Artemisia) and perennial saltworts, with characteristic genera including Salsola, Calligonum, Ephedra, and Anabasis. The climate is harsh and continental, pairing scant annual precipitation of about 100 to 150 millimeters with bitterly cold winters around -10 to -15 degrees Celsius and hot summers. Despite habitat loss to farmland, hunting, and plant harvesting that leave it rated vulnerable, the ecoregion remains largely intact and shelters critically endangered saiga antelope along with goitered gazelle and birds such as the houbara bustard and saker falcon. For gardeners, several drought- and salt-hardy native genera, among them Artemisia, Ephedra, and Calligonum, are familiar in xeric and rock-garden plantings.

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