The Kazakh Steppe is a vast temperate grassland ecoregion stretching across northern Kazakhstan and into adjacent Russia, bounded to the west by the Ural River and to the north and east by more humid forest steppe. With few trees outside river corridors, it is dominated by feathergrass (Stipa) and fescue (Festuca) steppe, interwoven with wormwood (Artemisia) and, on saline ground, salt-tolerant plants such as Salicornia. The climate is semi-arid and continental, marked by long, cold winters, strong winds, and modest annual precipitation, so the vegetation is well adapted to drought, fire, and grazing. It is critically important for wildlife, holding virtually the entire breeding population of the critically endangered sociable lapwing alongside the nomadic saiga antelope, yet much of the original steppe was historically plowed and little remains formally protected.

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