Syrian xeric grasslands and shrublands
RESOLVE 739
The Syrian xeric grasslands and shrublands form an arc of arid open plains stretching from southern Jordan across central Syria and northern Iraq toward the western border of Iran, with smaller reaches into Turkey and Israel, much of it overlying the upper plains of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This is a shrub steppe of grasses and dwarf shrubs, with white wormwood (Artemisia herba-alba) and bulbous bluegrass (Poa bulbosa) characteristic of the open ground, while Tamarix and Euphrates poplar (Populus euphratica) line the watercourses. The climate is strongly seasonal and semi-arid, with cool, wet winters and hot, dry summers, low annual rainfall, and searing sirocco winds that make the growing season hostile. Once richer in wildlife, the region now faces severe overgrazing, desertification, and water depletion, and very little of it is formally protected, with reserves in Jordan such as the Mujib Nature Reserve among the few; its flagship species is the pin-tailed sandgrouse. Gardeners may recognize hardy natives of this dry country, including giant fennel (Ferula) and the Persian buttercup (Ranunculus asiaticus).
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.
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.