The Colorado Rockies forest belt — the southern Rocky Mountain forest system covering most of Colorado, the southern tip of Wyoming, and small extensions into northern New Mexico. Distinctive elevation banding: pinyon-juniper at the lowest reaches, ponderosa pine + Gambel oak mid-elevation, Douglas fir + aspen + lodgepole pine higher, spruce-fir near treeline, alpine tundra above. The headwaters of the Colorado, Rio Grande, Arkansas, and Platte rivers all sit here.

At a glance

About the temperate conifer forests biome

Temperate forests dominated by evergreen conifers, from coastal rainforests to montane pine and fir stands. Adapted to cool, moist or seasonally dry climates, they include some of the tallest and longest-lived trees on the planet.

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 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 (1991-2020 climatology) via ArcGIS FeatureServer published 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

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