Plant Zones

Riparian Community

Many miles of streamside and canyon bottoms provide habitat for this community. Although some streams are usually dry in the spring, water is generally available deep below the surface. Plants growing here have to be adaptable and must also be able to tolerate occasional severe flooding.

Fremont Cottonwood: Natives of Arizona, these tall, erect trees have broad leaves and grayish bark. They grow by riversides and are often planted as shade trees. Their leaves turn bright gold in the fall.

Terrace Community

Old floodplains, which are usually higher than the reach of present-day floodwaters, provide the land area for this community.

Globemallow: This herbaceous plant stands one-foot to three-feet tall and has scallop-edged leaves surrounding vertical clusters of orange-to-scarlet flowers. A relative of cotton and hollyhocks, globemallow is a perennial that blooms in April near Glen Canyon Dam.

Hillside Community

This vegetation is extremely diverse, with variations dependent on the latitude, topography and slope exposure. The predominant grayish-green color of most of the plants is caused by the minute white hairs that cover the foliage, protecting it against moisture loss. Water mainly comes from annual precipitation.

Prickly Pear Cactus (beavertail cactus): This is a low plant that forms clumps up to three feet wide and six inches high. Its waxy flowers are two to four inches wide and come in different shades of red, pink or yellow. 

Hanging Garden Community

Rivers cut the sedimentary rock layers of the deep canyons which allowed natural aquifers (water-bearing rocks) to find outlets in canyon walls, on talus (rock debris) slopes or on canyon bottoms. This moist environment, fed by seeps and springs, provides a habitat for lush vegetation. Vertical collections of Gambel oak, maidenhair fern, poison ivy, monkey flowers, redbud and showy, white columbine flowers make up the ancient hanging gardens that have evolved around seeps and drip lines in the sandstone canyon walls in Glen Canyon NRA.

Piñon-Juniper Community

This community is found along the Kaiparowits Plateau and Orange Cliffs areas of Glen Canyon. Its high elevation causes it to receive more moisture than other areas. The additional water and cooler temperatures enable large plants to thrive here.

Piñon Pine: This small, bushy evergreen tree is 15 to 35 feet tall with a rounded, spreading crown. Its egg-shaped cones take two years to mature, at which point they open to release several large, edible seeds.