The Central China Loess Plateau mixed forests stretch across north-central China, occupying an elongated plateau northwest of the Yellow River and forming a transition zone between the maritime-influenced forests of eastern China and the steppes of Mongolia. The region is defined by its loess soils, wind-blown deposits up to 200 meters thick that lend their yellow color to the river downstream. Its natural cover is mixed deciduous broadleaf forest, with oak and maple at lower elevations giving way to birch, aspen, and linden higher up, cold-adapted conifers such as spruce on the highest slopes, and elm, ash, and pistachio nearer the Yellow River plain. The climate is humid continental with warm summers and dry, cold winters, and is seasonally dry and drought-prone. Centuries of farming have left only a small fraction of the original forest intact, surviving in reserves such as those in Shanxi, where the brown eared pheasant serves as the flagship species. For gardeners, several genera native here, including maple, linden, birch, and aspen, are familiar ornamental and shade trees.

At a glance

About the temperate broadleaf & mixed forests biome

Four-season forests of deciduous hardwoods — oak, maple, beech — often mixed with conifers, shaped by warm summers and cold winters. Trees leaf out in spring and color in autumn; the generally fertile soils have made these forests heavily settled and farmed.

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