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North American Deserts

The North American desert system occurs in a chain of arid regions stretching from southern Oregon and Idaho into southern California, then through Baja California and ending in northern Mexico. The desolate, bleak landscapes of the Sonoran Desert, dotted with giant saguaro cacti, evoke an iconic image of the American West. Most scientists distinguish four different deserts, classified by their climate and endemic plant populations.

Great Basin Desert
- The Great Basin Desert is the coldest of the North American Deserts. It occupies part of the Colorado Plateau of northern Arizona and extends into the Great Basin of Nevada and Utah. It's the northern-most desert with the highest elevations and it experiences long, hard winters. The dominant vegetation consists of a few species of shrubs called scrub bushes. The most conspicuous and strongest scented plant of the desert is Artemisia tridentata or big sagebrush.
Mojave Desert
- The Mojave Desert has a Mediterranean climate characterized by a winter precipitation season and occasional hard freezes. It's located in southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and eastern California. The arborescent Joshua tree or Yucca brevifolia is most noticeable plant species of the desert. The perennial flora consists of yuccas, chollas, barrel and prickly pear cacti. During wet years, many species of annuals flower on the desert floor after the early spring rains.
Sonoran Desert
- The Sonoran Desert starts in extreme south-central California and covers most of Arizona's southern half and the almost the entire Baja peninsula. The region gets a little rain in both the winter and the late summer seasons. Ephemeral annual plant flowers carpet the desert floor after the rains. The Sonora contains the widest diversity of cactus species of all the deserts. Giant saguaro, organ pipe and other tall columnar species grow there as well as many species of Agave and other succulents.
Chihuahuan Desert
- The Chihuahuan Desert is the southern-most one, beginning in southeastern New Mexico, running along the Big Bend area of extreme western Texas and continuing into a large area of north-central Mexico. The Chihuahuan Desert includes mountainous areas susceptible to hard winter freezes. Low shrubs, leafy succulents, small cacti and Agaves dominate the vegetation in the nearly treeless landscape. Sparse rainfall occurs over the summer season to enable the growth and flowering of endemic annual plants.

Nature