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Sagebrush is indicative of the Great Basin Floristic Province

The Great Basin Floristic Province[1] is a floristic province of the Madrean Subkingdom (floristic region), in the Boreal Kingdom (floristic kingdom).[1] It is located in the Western United States.

A floristic province (otherwise known as a phytochorion) is a concept defined by Ronald Good, in 1947, and refined by Armen Takhtajan, in 1986. A phytochorion is a region on earth that has a relative constant composition of plants. Takhtajan defined the Great Basin Floristic Province to extend well beyond the boundaries of the hydrographically defined Great Basin: it includes the Snake River Plain, the Colorado Plateau, the Uinta Basin, and parts of Arizona north of the Mogollon Rim. The Great Basin phytochorion is distinguished by the presence of Great Basin sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata), and saltbushes in genus Atriplex.[2]

The Great Basin floristic province is one geographical division scheme for the Intermountain West, amongst many. Other classifications are proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (i.e., the Central Basin and Range ecoregion and the Northern Basin and Range ecoregion), and by the World Wildlife Fund (i.e., Great Basin shrub steppe and Great Basin montane forests)

The larger deserts of the Great Basin Province are: the Great Basin Desert (39,505 square miles (102,320 km2) in Nevada; and the Great Salt Lake Desert (4,000 square miles (10,000 km2) and Escalante Desert (3,270 square miles (8,500 km2) in Utah.

References

  1. ^ a b Lentz, David L., ed. (2000). Imperfect Balance: Landscape Transformations in the Precolumbian Americas. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-11157-6. Retrieved 2010-09-06.
    The southern border of the Great Basin Province is marked by the replacement of sagebrush by Larrea and Ambrosia (creosote bush and ragweed) … floras of arid regions [within the Madrean Subkingdom] are excluded and treated with either the Boreal Subkingdom (Great Basin Province) or with the Neotropical Kingdom (Mexican Xerophylic [Sonoran] Region).
  2. ^ Thorne, Robert F. "Phytogeography of North America North of Mexico". Archived from the original on 2004-03-17.
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