The Meseta Central matorral is an arid lowland plain across the central Mexican Plateau, spanning states including Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, Coahuila, Durango, and Nuevo León between the Sierra Madre ranges and south of the Chihuahuan Desert. Its xeric shrublands are dominated by yuccas, creosote bush, mesquite, and cacti, over terrain ranging from desert plains to hills and mountains near 2,400 m. The climate is arid subtropical, with annual rainfall below 500 mm. Isolation by the surrounding mountains drove notable endemism, including roughly 16 endemic woody plant genera, yet protected areas cover only about 2% of the ecoregion.

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

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.

Related ecoregions