The Great Basin Desert is part of the Great Basin between the Sierra Nevada and the Wasatch Range. The desert is a geographical region that largely overlaps the Great Basin shrub steppe defined by the World Wildlife Fund, and the Central Basin and Range ecoregion defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and United States Geological Survey. It is a temperate desert with hot, dry summers and snowy winters. The desert spans large portions of Nevada and Utah, and extends into eastern California. The desert is one of the four biologically defined deserts in North America, in addition to the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Deserts.
The Northern Basin and Range ecoregion is a Level III ecoregion designated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the U.S. states of Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and California. It contains dissected lava plains, rolling hills, alluvial fans, valleys, and scattered mountain ranges in the northern part of the Great Basin. Although arid, the ecoregion is higher and cooler than the Snake River Plain to the north and has more available moisture and a cooler climate than the Central Basin and Range to the south. Its southern boundary is determined by the highest shoreline of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, which once inundated the Central Basin and Range. The western part of the region is internally drained; its eastern stream network drains to the Snake River system.
Antennaria dimorpha is a North American species of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae known by the common names low pussytoes or gray cushion pussytoes. It is native to western Canada and the western United States as far south as Riverside County in California and Rio Arriba County in New Mexico. It is generally found in dry areas. There are historical records of the species formerly occurring in northwestern Nebraska, but these populations appear now to be gone.
The Lost Forest Research Natural Area is a designated forest created by the Bureau of Land Management to protect an ancient stand of ponderosa pine in the remote high desert county of northern Lake County, in the south central area of the U.S. state of Oregon. Lost Forest is an isolated area of pine trees separated from the nearest contiguous forest land by forty miles of arid desert. There are no springs or surface water in Lost Forest, and much of the southwest portion of the natural area is covered by large shifting sand dunes that are slowly encroaching on the forest.
Navarretia sinistra is a species of flowering plant in the phlox family known by the common name Alva Day's pincushionplant.
Leptosiphon lemmonii is a species of flowering plant in the phlox family known by the common name Lemmon's linanthus.
Leptosiphon parviflorus is a species of flowering plant in the phlox family known by the common name variable linanthus.
Leptosiphon septentrionalis is a species of flowering plant in the phlox family known by the common name northern linanthus.
Phlox speciosa is a species of phlox known by the common name showy phlox. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to Arizona and New Mexico, where it occurs in sagebrush, pine woodlands, and mountain forests.
Hesperidanthus argillaceus, syn. Schoenocrambe argillacea, is a species of flowering plant in the mustard family, known by the common names clay reed-mustard, Uinta Basin plainsmustard, and clay thelypody.
Lomatium erythrocarpum, known by the common name redfruit desertparsley, is a rare species of flowering plant in the carrot family. It is endemic to Oregon in the United States, where it is limited to a section of the Blue Mountains within Baker County.
Cymopterus goodrichii is a rare species of flowering plant in the carrot family known by the common name Toiyabe springparsley. It is endemic to Nevada in the United States, where it occurs in the Toiyabe and West Humboldt Ranges.
Artemisia papposa is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common names Owyhee sage, Owyhee sagebrush, and fuzzy sagebrush. It is native to the Snake River Plain and surrounding areas in the northwestern United States, occurring in southern Idaho, eastern Oregon, and northern Nevada.
Eriogonum niveum is a species of flowering plant in the buckwheat family known by the common name snow buckwheat. It is native to the Pacific Northwest of North America, where it occurs in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. It flowers late in the summer.
Poa fendleriana is a species of grass known by the common name muttongrass. It is native to western North America, where its distribution extends from western Canada to northern Mexico.
Linanthus watsonii is a species of flowering plant in the phlox family known by the common name Watson's prickly phlox. It is native to the western United States, where it occurs in Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming.
The flora of the U.S. Sierra Nevada alpine zone is characterized by small, low growing, cushion and mat forming plants that can survive the harsh conditions in the high-altitude alpine zone above the timber line. These flora often occur in alpine fell-fields. The Sierra Nevada alpine zone lacks a dominant plant species that characterizes it, so may or may not be called a vegetation type. But it is found above the subalpine forest, which is the highest in a succession of recognized vegetation types at increasing elevations.
The flora of the Colorado Plateau and Canyonlands region is generally characterized by plant adaptations to the arid conditions of the region, and a wide variation of plant communities from wide variations in elevation and soil types. The elevation variation results in temperature variation. Differing soil types are largely due to erosion of different sedimentary layers in the canyons, from the layers at lowest point of canyons of the Colorado River network, to the top layers of the plateau. Exceptions to flora adapted to aridity occur in lowland riparian areas, at springs, and in hanging gardens.
Festuca kingii is a species of grass in the family Poaceae known by the common names spike fescue and King's fescue. It is native to the western United States from Oregon and California east to Nebraska and Kansas.
