The Yuma Desert is a lower-elevation section of the

Sonoran Desert The Sonoran Desert () is a hot desert and ecoregion in North America that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the Southwestern United States (in Arizona and California). It ...

in the

southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural list of regions of the United States, region of the United States that includes Arizona and New Mexico, along with adjacen ...

and the northwest of

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. It lies in the Salton basin. The desert contains areas of sparse vegetation and has notable areas of

sand dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

s. With an average annual rainfall of less than , it is among the harshest deserts in North America. Human presence is sparse throughout; the largest city is

Yuma, Arizona Yuma is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. The city's population was 95,548 at the 2020 census, up from the 2010 census population of 93,064. Yuma is the principal city of the Yuma, Arizona, Metropolitan ...

, on the Colorado River and the border of

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Overview

The desert includes the lower-elevation parts of the southwestern corner of

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, extending west to the

Colorado River The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...

. On the other side of the river, in

, is the

Colorado Desert The Colorado Desert is a part of the larger Sonoran Desert located in California, United States, and Baja California, Mexico. It encompasses approximately , including the heavily irrigated Coachella, Imperial and Mexicali valleys. It is home to ...

region of the Sonoran Desert, also referred to as the Low Desert. Although the two regions are separated only by the Colorado River, numerous species of plant and animals live only on one side or the other, such as

saguaro The saguaro ( , ; ''Carnegiea gigantea'') is a tree-like cactus species in the monotypic genus ''Carnegiea'' that can grow to be over tall. It is native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, the Mexican state of Sonora, and the Whipple Mountains ...

cactus, which occurs only east of the river. The Yuma Desert also includes the sandy plains of western

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into Municipalities of Sonora, 72 ...

, going all the way to the head of the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California (), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Vermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja California peninsula from ...

, then an inland strip reaching into the central Sonoran interior. The most significant river in this desert is the

Gila River The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of ...

of Arizona. Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is located in this desert, as are the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge and Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. To the south of Arizona's Yuma Desert, in northern Mexico, is the Pinacate volcanic field and biosphere reserve, part of the Gran Desierto de Altar, which is the southern extension of the Yuma Desert. It is on the northwestern foothills of Mexico's

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 C ...

, the western mountain

cordillera A cordillera is a chain or network of mountain ranges, such as those in the west coast of the Americas. The term is borrowed from Spanish, where the word comes from , a diminutive of ('rope'). The term is most commonly used in physical geogra ...

Origin of the name

The name Yuma desert has been in use since at least the 1929 geological mapping survey conducted by Eldred D. Wilson for the Arizona Bureau of Mines.

Flora

Vegetation is dominated by the creosote bush (''

Larrea tridentata ''Larrea tridentata'', called creosote bush, greasewood, and chaparral is a medicinal herb. In Sonora, it is more commonly called ''hediondilla''; Spanish ''hediondo'' = "smelly". It is a flowering plant in the family Zygophyllaceae. The specific ...

''), which is widespread. The saguaro cactus ('' Carnegiea gigantea'') and the ocotillo (''

Fouquieria splendens ''Fouquieria splendens'', commonly known as ocotillo, is a plant indigenous to the Mojave Desert, Mojave, Sonoran Desert, Sonoran, Chihuahuan Desert, Chihuahuan and Colorado Desert, Colorado deserts in the Southwestern United States (southern C ...

'') are common on the bajadas, while many of the desert trees found are restricted to dry watercourses; these include paloverde ('' Parkinsonia''), the desert willow (''

Chilopsis linearis ''Chilopsis'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants containing the single species ''Chilopsis linearis''. It is known commonly as desert willow

''), desert ironwood ('' Olneya tesota''), and smoke trees ('' Psorothamnus spinosus''). The Yuma desert is the northern edge of the distributions of the elephant tree (''

Bursera microphylla ''Bursera microphylla'', known by the common name elephant tree in English or 'torote' in Spanish, is a tree in the genus '' Bursera''. It grows into a distinctive sculptural form, with a thickened, water-storing or caudiciform trunk. It is foun ...

'') and the blue Baja lily ('' Triteleiopsis palmeri'').

Fauna

:Main articles in: Fauna of the Sonoran Desert The Salton Trough region from orbit

References

External links