The Sierra de Morones is a mountain range in west-central
Mexico
Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...
.
Geography
The Sierra de Morones extends north and south through the state of
Zacatecas
, image_map = Zacatecas in Mexico (location map scheme).svg
, map_caption = State of Zacatecas within Mexico
, coordinates =
, coor_pinpoint =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type ...
. The Sierra, together with the
Sierra Fría
The Sierra Fría is a mountain range in central Mexico. It forms the northwestern border of Aguascalientes state and extends into adjacent Zacatecas, west of the city of Aguascalientes.
Geography
The Sierra Fría is the southeasternmost range o ...
to the east and the
Sierra los Huicholes to the west, forms the southern end of the
Sierra Madre Occidental
The Sierra Madre Occidental is a major mountain range system of the North American Cordillera, that runs northwest–southeast through northwestern and western Mexico, and along the Gulf of California. The Sierra Madre is part of the American ...
.
The
Juchipila River drains the eastern slopes of the Sierra, running southwards to empty into the
Río Grande de Santiago. The
Bolaños River, another tributary of the Río Grande de Santiago, drains the western slope of the Sierra. The Río Grande de Santiago bounds the range on the south and southeast.
Flora and fauna
The Sierra de Morones is covered with
pine–oak forests above 800 meters elevation. Oaks are the predominant trees, with pines becoming more common at higher elevation. Tropical dry forest occurs below 800 meters elevation.
["Sierra de Morones''. Regiones Terrestres Prioritarias de México, CONABIO. Accessed 23 October 2021]
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''Pinus maximartinezii
''Pinus maximartinezii'', called Martinez pinyon, big-cone pinyon or maxipiñon, is a pine in the pinyon pine group, native to west-central Mexico.
Description
It is a small tree, reaching tall and with a trunk diameter of up to . The bark is ...
'' is a species of pine tree found only in the Sierra de Morones, occurring between 1,600 and 2,000 meters elevation.[
]
Conservation
Part of the Sierra is in Cuenca Alimentadora del Distrito Nacional de Riego 043 Estado de Nayarit, a national natural resources protection area. It was established in 1949 to protect forests and watersheds for the benefit of downstream agriculture, and was redesignated a national resources protection area in 2002.["CADNR 043 Estado de Nayarit". Sistema de Información, Monitoreo y Evaluación para la Conservación (SIMEC) of the Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (CONANP). Accessed 23 October 2021]
/ref>
References
{{coord missing, Mexico
Sierra Madre Occidental
Geography of Zacatecas
Mountain ranges of Mexico