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Things You Will See in the Deserts

When most people hear the word 'desert', they envision a hot, waterless expanse of sand and cactus and nothing else. The world's deserts, however, have a large variety of flora, fauna, landforms, weather, and even climate - blistering heat isn't always the rule. Depending on which desert you visit, you'll see an array of wildlife and plant life and have very different experiences.

Flora
- The most famous desert plant is the cactus.
  
  Flora varies among the four different types of desert, but is certainly not limited to cacti. In arid deserts, plant life can be small shrubs and stumpy trees with spiny leaves. You'll see plants like prickly pears, yuccas, ephedras, and agaves. Semiarid deserts have plants with similarly spiny leaves, along with "woolly" desert plants. Plants there include lycium, jujube, and cat's claw. Plants in coastal deserts have the advantage of more, though still infrequent, rainfall; they usually have root systems that absorb and store water during a shower. Rice grass, black sage, and salt brush grow in coastal deserts. In cold deserts, vegetation is restricted and scattered due to the climate, but some plants do grow there, mostly short, spiny-leafed deciduous ones like sagebrush.
Fauna
- Bald eagles (and golden eagles) can be found in coastal deserts.
  
  Desert animal life is not limited to snakes and camels, but the animals that do survive in the desert have extraordinary water-conserving abilities. Some never or rarely actually drink due to the lack of moisture. Rodents (various species of mice, rats, and squirrels), jack-rabbits, coyotes, badgers, lizards, and deer are found in cold deserts. Coastal deserts, like the Atacama in Chile, are home to toads, great horned owls, bald eagles, golden eagles, and snakes. Wildlife in semiarid deserts is restricted mainly to rodents, insects, and small birds that can burrow during the day to stay cool. The situation is similar in arid deserts, where the rodents, reptiles, and birds in residence usually come out only in the night and very early morning. Thus, you may not see many animals in arid or semiarid deserts.
Landforms
- The Gobi Desert contains large sand dunes and several other landforms.
  
  Desert landforms vary widely from region to region. Africa's Sahara Desert is famous for its huge sand dunes and the Nile River, while the Sonoran Desert (stretching across Mexico, Arizona, and California) is dotted with mountain ranges throughout. The Great Salt Lake Desert in Utah even has a permanent groundwater supply - the Great Salt Lake. The Gobi Desert in China features sand dunes, salt ponds, steppes, desert basins, and mountains, while Chile's Atacama Desert is a coastal desert, virtually rainless and stretching out over one big, dry plateau.

Nature