FLORA IN MENDOZA

Cordilleran Zone
The characteristic flora of the Andean highlands develops in the zone of the main cordillera, the frontal, and the pre cordillera. Vegetation is scarce to the point of disappearing above 3000 m altlitudes, where there are only ample mountain zones with perennial snow. The coirones, which are hard grasses resistant to winter snowfalls, drought and cold winds, grow above 3900 m. Small oases of the highlands, called wetlands, form around the mountain streams and on the slopes, where many cold-resistant aquatic plants grow.

Zone of the Valleys
The flora of the valleys and dry depressions in the Centre of the Province is that of the arid steppe, with abundant shrubs such as jansias, breas, brooms, atamisques and chañares. There are also ecological reserves with aboriginal woods of several species of locust trees.

High Plateau of La Payunia
The vegetation becoming to the shrubby steppe, similar to that at the Patagonian deserts, grows on the volcanic high plateau of La Payunia. Here flourishes the solum, a bush adapted to droughts, accompanied by different types of grass.

The Salt Deposits
There is a vegetation of saline soils composed by grasses adapted to these characteristics which are able to prosper on salty terrains, especially in the Northeastern sector of Mendoza.

The Dry Wood
We can watch a dry wood on the Eastern plains of Mendoza, where the locust trees, capable of enduring the aridity of the soil, are predominant. Fern leaf acacias and other trees and bushes, such as the broom, the chañar and the jarilla, can also grow here, whilst the caldén grows in the Southern part of the Province.