Flora of the Colorado Desert

Anza Borrego Desert State Park

.

Flora of the Colorado Desert, located in Southern California. The Colorado Desert is a sub-region in the Sonoran Desert ecoregion of southwestern North America. It is also known as the Low Desert, in contrast to the higher elevation Mojave Desert or High Desert, to its north.

Plant communities

The

Coulter pine (Pinus coulteri)

.

More than half of the Colorado Desert's plant species are

perennials

and the

Wetland biota

In the Colorado Desert's arid environment, aquatic and

arroyos

, and ephemeral streams, and brine lakes.

tamarisk. Two of the region's most significant aquatic systems are the Salton Sea and the Colorado River

.

While most desert wildlife depend on aquatic habitats as water sources, a number of species, such as the arroyo toad, desert pupfish, Yuma rail, and southwestern willow flycatcher, are restricted to these habitats. In some places, summer rains produce short-lived seasonal pools that host uncommon species like Couch's spadefoot toad.

Anza Borrego Desert State Park

Desert

California fan palm oases are rare ecological communities found only in the Colorado Desert. They occur only where permanent water sources are available, such as at springs or along fault lines, where groundwater is forced to the surface by the movement of hard impermeable rock, and can be found in: the canyons of the San Jacinto Mountains, Santa Rosa Mountains, and Little San Bernardino Mountains, and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park; and along the San Andreas Fault in the Coachella Valley. The only palm native to California, Washingtonia filifera (California fan palm), grows in natural groves at the oases.^[1]