The Mongolian-Manchurian grassland is one of the largest and most intact temperate grassland ecosystems on Earth, sweeping in a great crescent across central and eastern Mongolia, the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia, and Northeast China, with reaches extending into Russia between Siberian forests and the Central Asian deserts. Its open steppe is dominated by feather grasses (Stipa), sheep's fescue (Festuca ovina), and other bunchgrasses, while wetter eastern pockets give way to woodlands of birch, aspen, Siberian elm, and Mongolian oak (Quercus mongolica). The climate is sharply continental and semi-arid, with warm but brief summers, modest monsoon-borne rainfall that tapers from east to west, and long, frigid winters where January means fall well below freezing. The flagship species is the Mongolian gazelle, whose herds still range across the plains, and the grassland also shelters cranes, bustards, and steppe raptors, though only a small fraction of the ecoregion lies within protected areas. For gardeners, the region is the native home of ornamental feather grasses (Stipa), prized for movement and drought tolerance in temperate plantings.

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