The Patagonian Steppe stretches across the Patagonia region of Argentina from the Atlantic coast into southwestern Chile, and also reaches the Falkland Islands, covering low mountains, plateaus, and plains. Its vegetation is xerophytic and shaped by drought, wind, and grazing, with dwarf and cushion shrubs the most widespread cover; characteristic genera include Nassauvia, Verbena, and Benthamiella, taller shrubs such as Berberis, Schinus, and Anarthrophyllum, and bunchgrasses of Poa and Stipa. The climate is very dry and cold, bringing winter snowfall, near year-round frosts, and annual precipitation that typically averages less than 200 millimeters. The steppe supports high endemism in plants and animals and is the stronghold of the critically endangered hooded grebe, though desertification from overgrazing, chiefly by sheep, is its primary threat. For gardeners working cold, dry, wind-exposed sites, the region's native Berberis and Schinus point toward hardy, drought- and wind-tolerant shrubs.

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

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