The Kazakh forest steppe is a long, narrow transition belt running roughly 2,000 km along the Russia-Kazakhstan border, from the southern Ural Mountains in the west to the foothills of the Altai and Sayan Mountains in the east, lying mostly on the Russian side. It is a mosaic of species-rich grasslands and open woodland too sparse to form a closed canopy, with groves dominated by birch, European aspen, and Scots pine, sometimes forming ribbon forests on sandy soils. The climate is humid continental with sharp seasonal swings, long cold winters and short cool summers, and only modest precipitation that just supports the patchy tree stands. The Siberian roe deer is the ecoregion's flagship species, and its lakes and grasslands shelter wildlife including Eurasian lynx, grey wolf, saker falcon, pallid harrier, and the white-headed duck, though only a small fraction of the region is protected against ongoing conversion to cropland. Gardeners may recognize native ornamentals here such as the purple-bract iris and dropwort.

At a glance

About the temperate grasslands, savannas & shrublands biome

Temperate prairies, steppes, and pampas of grasses and forbs with few trees, under continental climates of hot summers and cold winters. Their deep, fertile soils have made them among the most extensively converted biomes for agriculture.

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