The Qilian Mountains conifer forests are a series of isolated forest patches on the northern slopes of the Qilian Mountain Range, along the northeast edge of the Tibetan Plateau in the Qinghai and Gansu provinces of north-central China. These thin ridges of woodland sit between the Gobi Desert to the north and the dry, high plateau to the south, dominated by Qinghai (Qilian) spruce, most abundant between roughly 2,450 and 3,200 meters, and Przewalski's juniper growing through a dense shrub layer at higher elevations. Because of its high elevation and mid-continental position, the region has a subarctic, dry-winter climate, with January temperatures around minus 18 to minus 7 degrees Celsius and short, mild summers, while precipitation increases upslope from the desert basins. The forests support a notable suite of large carnivores, including snow leopard, Eurasian lynx, gray wolf, and brown bear, with the endemic Chinese mountain cat serving as the ecoregion's flagship species, and much of the area falls within the Qilianshan National Nature Reserve. For gardeners drawn to montane conifers, this is part of the native range of Przewalski's juniper, a hardy evergreen of these cold, exposed slopes.

At a glance

About the temperate conifer forests biome

Temperate forests dominated by evergreen conifers, from coastal rainforests to montane pine and fir stands. Adapted to cool, moist or seasonally dry climates, they include some of the tallest and longest-lived trees on the planet.

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