The Mitchell Grass Downs is a

tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands is a terrestrial biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The biome is dominated by grass and/or shrubs located in semi-arid to semi-humid climate regions of subtropical and t ...

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...

in northeastern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. It is a mostly treeless grassland, characterised by Mitchell grasses (''Astrebla'' spp.).

Location and description

The ecoregion is bounded on the north and east by tropical savanna ecoregions – the Victoria Plains tropical savanna to the northeast, the Carpentaria tropical savanna to the north, the Einasleigh Uplands savanna to the northeast, and the Brigalow tropical savanna to the east. More arid ecoregions lie to west and south – the Great Sandy-Tanami desert to the southwest, the

Simpson Desert The Simpson Desert is a large area of dry, red sandy plain and dunes in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland in central Australia. It is the fourth-largest Australian desert, with an area of . The desert is underlain by the ...

to the south, and the Eastern Australia mulga shrublands to the southeast. The ecoregion includes three IBRA regions – Mitchell Grass Downs, Mount Isa Inlier, and

Desert Uplands The Desert Uplands is an interim Australian bioregion located in north and central western Queensland which straddles the Great Dividing Range between Blackall and Pentland. Geography The bioregion contains Lake Galilee, Lake Dunn and Lak ...

Climate

The climate is tropical and semi-arid. Average annual rainfall varies across the ecoregion, from 350 mm to 750 mm. In much of the ecoregion rainfall is seasonal, coinciding with the summer monsoon. Rainfall becomes less seasonal towards the southeast.

Flora

The vegetation consists mostly of grasses along with wildflowers and low shrubs, including Queensland bluebush (''Chenopodium auricomum''). There are scattered dry acacia woodlands, predominantly of gidgee (''Acacia cambagei''). Watercourses support woodlands of red river gum (''Eucalyptus camuldulensis''),

coolibah ''Eucalyptus coolabah'', commonly known as coolibah or coolabah, is a species of tree found in eastern inland Australia. It has rough bark on part or all of the trunk, smooth powdery cream to pink bark above, lance-shaped to curved adult leaves ...

(''E. coolabah''), and

paperbark ''Melaleuca'' () is a genus of nearly 300 species of plants in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, commonly known as paperbarks, honey-myrtles or tea-trees (although the last name is also applied to species of ''Leptospermum''). They range in size f ...

(''Melaleuca'' spp.). The Desert Uplands has dry woodlands of '' Eucalyptus populnea, E. melanophloia'', and '' E. similis''. Low open woodlands of snappy gum (''Eucalyptus leucophloia''), Cloncurry box (''E. leucophylla''), and

silver box ''Silver Box'' is a 5-CD box set by Scottish rock band Simple Minds, released in October 2004. It includes ''Our Secrets Are the Same'' (as disc 5), the band's long-delayed (1999/2000) twelfth studio album of original material. Overview '' ...

(''E. pruinosa'') grow in the Mount Isa Inlier.

External links

References

{{Reflist Biogeography of the Northern Territory Ecoregions of Queensland Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands