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Grand Canyon

Ecoregion on Colorado Plateau, AZ

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The scenic Grand Canyon is distinguished by its extreme relief, rough topography, and range of vegetation types. The exposed rocks from the canyon bottom to the top rims represent nearly 2 billion years of geologic history. Shales tend to erode to slopes, while harder sandstones and limestones form cliffs. At the canyon bottom, the older and harder metamorphic basement rocks produce a steep-walled, narrow, inner gorge. Elevations of the spectacular erosional landscape range from 2000 feet along the river in the west to 8000 feet at the North Rim. Strong aspect and elevation differences contribute to vegetation ranging from riparian to desert scrub to woodland. Along the river, willows, mesquite, catclaw acacia, and exotic tamarisk occur. Various desert scrub communities occur with species typical of Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan deserts. Upstream of the Little Colorado River, species more characteristic of Great Basin deserts predominate, such as big sagebrush, blackbrush, and rubber rabbitbrush. At higher elevations, pinyon-juniper woodland occurs with big sagebrush, snakeweed, Mormon tea, Utah agave, yuccas, winterfat, Indian ricegrass, dropseed, and needlegrass. Seeps and springs often contain rare plants.

— EPA

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