The Low Monte, also known as the Argentine Monte, is an arid scrubland ecoregion stretching across north-central Argentina along the eastern foothills of the Andes, running from Salta Province in the north to Chubut Province in the south. Its open flats are dominated by resinous evergreen shrubs of the family Zygophyllaceae, especially the creosote-bush genus Larrea along with Bulnesia and Plectocarpa, mingled with mesquite (Prosopis) and thin gallery forests that trace the rivers. This is one of the driest parts of the country, with a cold arid steppe climate (Köppen BSk) and scant annual rainfall of roughly 80 to 250 millimeters. The region shelters guanaco, puma, and the endangered southern river otter as its flagship species, though the World Wildlife Fund rates it Vulnerable, with only about 5 percent under protection and large areas degraded by overgrazing and deforestation. For dry-climate gardeners, the native Larrea (creosote bush) and Prosopis (mesquite) are well suited to low-water, xeric plantings.
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.
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.