The Snake-Columbia shrub steppe is a vast arid ecoregion stretching across the Columbia Basin of Washington, southeastern Oregon, northern Nevada, extreme northeastern California, southern Idaho, and a small part of western Wyoming. Its landscape of basins, playas, and wetlands punctuated by steep fault-block mountains is dominated by big sagebrush and perennial grasses such as bluebunch wheatgrass and Idaho fescue, with western juniper woodlands and a biological soil crust of lichens, fungi, and cyanobacteria. Summers are warm to hot and winters cold, with limited precipitation that varies sharply by rain shadow. The greater sage-grouse is the flagship species; major threats include livestock grazing, juniper expansion from fire exclusion, and cheatgrass invasion that has made wildfires unnaturally frequent.

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.

National refinement sub-regions

Catalog plants suited to this ecoregion

Computed from each plant's stated USDA zone range against this ecoregion's USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 (1991-2020 climatology) via ArcGIS FeatureServer published 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