Colorado Desert

It encompasses approximately 7 million acres (2,800,000 ha; 28,000 km2), including the heavily irrigated Coachella, Imperial and Mexicali valleys.

These include remnants of Pacific hurricanes, storms from the southern tropical jetstream, and the northern Intertropical Convergence Zone.

In addition to hardy perennials, more than half of the desert's plant species are herbaceous annuals, and appropriately timed winter rains produce abundant early spring wildflowers.

[6] In the Colorado Desert's arid environment, aquatic and wetland habitats are limited in extent but are critically important to wildlife.

In some places, summer rains produce short-lived seasonal pools that host uncommon species like Couch's spadefoot toad.

Along the Lower Colorado River Valley, in-flow side canyons, flatlands, or low-to-higher level elevations, at least one such plants occur: Salvia greatae (Orocopia sage).

Many unique communities, particularly aquatic and dune systems, are limited in distribution and separated by vast expanses of inhospitable, arid desert terrain.

Even limited human disturbances can have markedly deleterious effects on the endemic and sensitive species supported by these unique regional systems.