Despite its English name, this desert steppe lies in Central Asia, not North America: it occupies the enclosed, endorheic Great Lakes Depression of northwestern Mongolia centered on Uvs Lake, with a portion reaching into the Tuva region of Russia. The basin holds a mosaic of desert-steppe and desert plant communities, with bunchgrasses such as Stipa krylovii, Stipa glareosa, and Cleistogenes squarrosa giving way to shrubs and semi-shrubs of Caragana, Atraphaxis frutescens, Anabasis brevifolia, and Artemisia, while reed and marshland plants ring the lakeshores. The climate is harshly continental and rain-shadowed, with frigid winters, warm summers, and very low annual precipitation that peaks in July. Because the region has seen little farming or resource extraction beyond mobile herding, it remains exceptionally intact, stacking steppe-to-desert and freshwater-to-saltwater transitions and supporting the corsac fox alongside protected lands including Mongolia's Uvs Nuur Strictly Protected Area and Russia's Ubsunur Hollow reserve. Gardeners will recognize native genera here such as the feather grasses (Stipa) and pea-shrub Caragana, both grown ornamentally in cold, dry climates.

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