The Taklimakan Desert ecoregion fills the Tarim Basin in the Xinjiang region of northwest China, ringed by the Kunlun, Pamir, and Tian Shan mountains near the geographic center of Eurasia. Its interior is largely barren shifting sand, but marginal piedmont slopes and the braided channel of the Tarim River support specialized flora, including desert poplar (Populus euphratica), saxaul, members of the tamarisk family, and salt-tolerant plants such as Halogeton, Halostachys, and camelthorn, along with Reaumuria soongorica and Ephedra przewalskii in zones of intermittent water. This is an exceptionally arid cold desert, receiving less than 100 mm of precipitation a year in most areas, with seasonal and day-to-night temperature swings that can each exceed 35°C. Its flagship animal is the critically endangered wild Bactrian camel, with roughly 650 individuals surviving in the Lop Nur Wild Camel National Nature Reserve—the only place where wild camels breed in isolation from domestic stock—alongside gray wolves, argali, Tibetan wild ass, and black-tailed gazelle.

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.

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