The Selenge-Orkhon forest steppe is a Palearctic transition zone between northern taiga and open steppe, stretching across north-central Mongolia and following the Selenga River northeast into Russia's Buryatia, around the basins of the Tesiin Gol, Selenge, and Orkhon rivers. Cooler, moister north-facing slopes carry forests of Siberian larch, Scots pine, and Asian white birch, while warmer southern aspects give way to meadow and dry steppe grasslands with feathergrass, Artemisia frigida, Carex pediformis, and Pulsatilla ambigua. The climate is a dry-winter subarctic type (Köppen Dwc), marked by sharp daily and seasonal swings, long cold winters, short cool summers, and modest precipitation that peaks in July. The region supports the Mongolian marmot as its flagship species alongside snow leopards, Siberian ibex, Corsac foxes, and Siberian musk deer, and it is a migratory corridor for whooper swans, bar-headed geese, and demoiselle cranes, though grazing pressure, agriculture, and mining leave little of it formally protected. Gardeners may recognize natives such as Pulsatilla and Artemisia as familiar ornamental and silver-foliage plants.

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