Growing plants and being involved in horticulture since 1980 meant knowing the USDA’s plant hardiness zones so I could jabber to folks knowingly (Ha!) about plant choices for their personal habitat. To make things a little more confusing Sunset Magazine created their own hardiness and planting zones for the Western US. Jeez, Sunset!
During my brief tenure at the University of Arizona I learned about C. Hart Merriam’s life zone system created in 1896 and I worked that into my plant blather for awhile. It did make me sound pretty smart. Then in 1994 along comes David Brown’s Biotic Communities of the Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico…biomes! Some nights that book still comes to bed with me.
For more discussion about life zones and biotic communities let’s meet at the Borderlands Biome Bar.
Below is the culprit that got this going…
