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Arizona Upland/Eastern Sonoran Basins

Ecoregion in Sonoran Desert, AZ

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The Arizona Upland/Eastern Sonoran Basins ecoregion includes the broad alluvial plains, fans, and bajadas that occur between the higher relief mountain ranges of Ecoregion 81k. Elevations are mostly 1500 to 3000 feet, but are as low as 900 feet in the north and as high as 3600 feet on some upper slopes. Sediments filling the basins represent combinations of fluvial, colluvial, and alluvial deposits. In the plains and lower bajadas, creosotebush and bursage are still common, similar to Ecoregion 81j, although here more thornscrub elements of the Sonoran Arizona Upland begin to occur. The upper bajadas have some similarities with the vegetation communities of the mountain slopes of Ecoregion 81k, with more saguaro, foothills paloverde, ironwood, triangle-leaf bursage, ocotillo, mesquite, acacias, a variety of opuntias, and some bush muhly. An area of Joshua trees occurs northwest of Wickenburg, a relict population of this Mojavean species.

— EPA

Plants

Saguaro Carnegiea gigantea (species), “Arizona Giant Cactus”

Arizona Upland/Eastern Sonoran Basins

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