Colorado Plateau

Colorado Plateau

Rugged tableland topography is typical of the Colorado Plateaus ecoregion. Canyons, mesas, plateaus, and mountains expose a long geologic history of rock formations. Precipitous side-walls mark abrupt changes in local relief, often of 1000 to 2000 feet or more. The region contains more piñon-juniper and Gambel oak woodlands than the Wyoming Basin to the north. However, the region also has large low-lying areas containing saltbush-greasewood communities, and in Utah, blackbrush communities typical of hotter, drier areas. These communities are generally not found in the higher Arizona/New Mexico Plateau to the south where grasslands were typically more common.

Flora:

The arid Shale Deserts and Sedimentary Basins: Mat saltbush, fourwing saltbush, greasewood, shadscale, alkali sacaton, galleta grass, poverty threeawn, sand dropseed, Indian ricegrass and some piñon-juniper woodland.

The Semiarid Benchlands and Canyonlands: Gambel oak, sagebrush, fourwing saltbush, winterfat, Mormon tea, shadscale, saltbush, some sand sagebrush, galleta grass and Indian ricegrass.