The Chihuahuan desert — the largest North American desert, covering western Texas, southern New Mexico, southeastern Arizona, and substantial portions of the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, and Zacatecas. Higher and cooler than the Sonoran; summer monsoonal rainfall supports the largest cacti diversity in North America (~350 species), with creosote bush, lechuguilla, sotol, and Yucca matrix species. Big Bend National Park covers a famous US portion.

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.

National refinement sub-regions

What's native here

Catalog plants whose Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center native-distribution range overlaps the 3-state/province roster for this ecoregion. Distinct from the “suited” section below — these are plants that belong here, not just plants that will grow here.

Grain caveat: native here means “native to at least one state / province this ecoregion crosses,” not necessarily native to this ecoregion's specific habitat. A plant tied to wet meadows that crosses Ontario will surface for any Ontario-spanning ecoregion. Finer per-ecoregion native-status data is a future arc.

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.

Wildlife your native plants here support

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.

Related ecoregions