The Central Ranges xeric scrub is a deserts and xeric shrublands

Deserts and xeric shrublands

Deserts and xeric shrublands is a biome characterized by, relating to, or requiring only a small amount of moisture.-Definition and occurrence:...

 ecoregion

Ecoregion

An ecoregion , sometimes called a bioregion, is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than an ecozone and larger than an ecosystem. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural...

 of Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

Location and description

The region consists of sandy plains with some areas of rocky highland. These plains have a dry climate but do get some rain in both summer and winter. This area contains the remote city of Alice Springs

Alice Springs, Northern Territory

Alice Springs is the second largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Popularly known as "the Alice" or simply "Alice", Alice Springs is situated in the geographic centre of Australia near the southern border of the Northern Territory...

 while the grasslands are home to a number of Indigenous Australian communities or are used for cattle grazing.

Flora

This ecoregion contains four Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia

Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia

The Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia is a biogeographic regionalisation of Australia developed by the Australian Government's Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts...

 (IBRA) bioregions; Burt Plain, MacDonnell Ranges

MacDonnell Ranges

The MacDonnell Ranges of the Northern Territory, are a long series of mountain ranges located in the centre of Australia , and consist of parallel ridges running to the east and west of Alice Springs...

, Finke, and Central Ranges

Central Ranges

Central Ranges is an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia region in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and South Australia, and are a large part of the World Wide Fund for Nature Central Ranges xeric scrub ecoregion....

, and includes the Central Australian Mountain Ranges Centre of Plant Diversity. The habitats consists of thick, tough spinifex

Spinifex (genus)

Spinifex is a genus of perennial coastal grasses. They are one of the most common plants that grow in sand dunes along the coasts of Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia.. As they help stabilise the sand, these grasses are an important part of the entire sand dune ecosystem. Of the four species...

 grassland with some wooded areas of myall

Myall

Myalls are any of a group of closely related and very similar species of Acacia:* A. papyrocarpa, commonly known as western myall;** a weeping form of the species, commonly known as water myall;...

 and desert oak (Acacia coriacea). The region and the MacDonnell Ranges in particular are home to a number of specialised endemic plant species including the Cabbage Palm

Livistona mariae

The Central Australian Cabbage Palm is a species of flowering plant in the Arecaceae family.It is found only in Australia with the best-known occurrence found in Palm Valley in Finke Gorge National Park, Northern Territory...

s of Palm Valley

Palm Valley (Northern Territory)

Palm Valley, within the Finke Gorge National Park, is an east-west running valley in the Krichauff Range 123 km southwest of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, Australia. Palm Valley and the surrounding area is the only place in Central Australia where Livistona mariae palms survive...

 in Finke Gorge National Park

Finke Gorge National Park

Finke Gorge is a national park in the Northern Territory of Australia, 1318 km south of Darwin.The Park covers an area of 458 square kilometres, and includes the impressive desert oasis Palm Valley, home to a diverse range of plant species, many of which are rare and unique to the area...

.

Fauna

Birds include the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo

Red-tailed Black Cockatoo

The Red-tailed Black Cockatoo , also known as Banksian- or Banks' Black Cockatoo, is a large cockatoo native to Australia. This species was known as Calyptorhynchus magnificus for many decades until the current scientific name was officially conserved in 1994. It is more common in the drier parts...

 and the Spinifexbird while animals include the Black-flanked Rock-wallaby

Black-flanked Rock-wallaby

The Black-flanked Rock-wallaby , also known as the Black-footed Rock-wallaby or Warru, is a kind of wallaby, one of several rock-wallabies in the genus Petrogale.-Description:...

 population of the of the MacDonnell Ranges and the Green Tree Frog.

Overgrazing by cattle and introduced animals including horses, donkeys and rabbits are a threat to habitats.

Further reading

• Thackway, R and I D Cresswell (1995) An interim biogeographic regionalisation for Australia : a framework for setting priorities in the National Reserves System Cooperative Program Version 4.0 Canberra : Australian Nature Conservation Agency, Reserve Systems Unit, 1995. ISBN 0642213712