In the southern Lower Sonoran deserts near St. George, fewer than eight inches of rain falls yearly. Creosote bush dominates the plantlife, though you’re also likely to see rabbitbrush, snakeweed, blackbrush, saltbush, yucca, and cacti. Joshua trees grow on some of the higher gravel benches. Flowering plants tend to bloom after either the winter rains (the Sonoran or Mexican species) or the summer rains (the Mojave or Californian species).

In the more temperate Upper Sonoran Zone, shadscale—a plant resistant to both salt and drought—grows on the valley floors and the lower slopes of the Great Basin, Uinta Basin, and canyonlands. Commonly growing with shadscale are grasses, annuals, Mormon tea, budsage, gray molley, and winterfat. In salty soils, more likely companions are greasewood, salt grass, and iodine bush. Nonalkaline soils, on the other hand, may have blackbrush as the dominant plant. Sagebrush, the most common shrub in Utah, thrives on higher terraces and in alluvial fans of nonalkaline soil. Grasses are commonly found mixed with sagebrush and may even dominate the landscape. Piñon pine and juniper, small trees often found together, can grow only where at least 12 inches of rain falls annually; the lower limit of their growth is sometimes called the “arid timberline.” In the Wasatch Range, scrub oaks often grow near junipers.