SALT
DESERT VEGETATION Many
unique plants inhabit the salty soils commonly occurring in the valley
bottoms of the Great Basin. These communities may be regarded as islands
or inclusions within the Northern desert vegetation zone. Some of the
plants include greasewood--spiny shrub 2-8 feet tall, slender, fleshy
worm-like leaves, winged fruits sometimes tinged red, white bark, indicates
a near-surface water table; shadscale or saltbush, shrub of alkaline
soils, covered with silvery scales, some species have spines, fruits
usually four-winged; pickleweed--fleshy, jointed, oppositely branched
stems, less than one foot tall, leaves reduced to triangular scales,
fruiting spikes often turn red in fall and outline water ponds (Indians gathered seeds and ate them, early pioneers picked the plants and pickled
them), highly salt-tolerant; salt grass--the most salt tolerant grass
known to Utah.
SOUTHERN
DESERT VEGETATION Another
low elevation vegetation zone is the southern desert which occurs in
southwestern Utah. Its northern limit is near St. George, Utah, and
it extends southward into Mexico. Some common plants found in this region
include sand sagebrush--almost thread-like silvery leaves, found in
sandy places; sunflowers; creosote bush--evergreen shrub, leaves opposite,
flower, five single yellow petals; yucca--woody base or tree-like, many
leaves in large rosettes at base, apex of woody base on branches, sword-shaped,
sometimes spine-tipped; Joshua tree--member of yucca family, very picturesque,
vary in height and from a distance groups may look like a forest, white
fleshy fruit; cactus-- store water in fleshy stems, native species include
hedgehog--mound-shaped clumps of cylindrical stems; cholla--branching
stems made up of cylindrical joints; prickly-pear--flattened joints;
all cacti have beautiful flowers.
See:
B.A. Andersen and A.H. Holmgren, Mountain Plants of Northeastern Utah
(1976); L. Arnow, B. Albee, and A. Wyckoff, Flora of the Central Wasatch
Front, Utah (1980); and S.L. Welsh and A. Moor, Utah Plants: Tracheophyta
(1973).
Betty
Wullstein
