New Mexico

Ecoregions: Arizona/New Mexico Mountains, Arizona/New Mexico Plateau, Chihuahuan Deserts, Colorado Plateau, Madrean Archipelago, Southern Rockies, Southwestern Tablelands, Western High Plains

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.

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