page_title: Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
section_title: Flora and fauna
hierarchical_section_title: Anza-Borrego Desert State Park / Flora and fauna
caption_attribution_description: English: Taken at Anza-Borrego State Park, California, at Palm Canyon. Greg Bulla, www.gregbulla.com
context_page_description: Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is a California State Park located within the Colorado Desert of southern California, United States. The park takes its name from 18th century Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza and borrego, a Spanish word for sheep. With 600,000 acres that includes one-fifth of San Diego County, it is the largest state park in California.
  The park occupies eastern San Diego County and reaches into Imperial and Riverside counties, enveloping two communities: Borrego Springs, which is home to the park's headquarters, and Shelter Valley.
context_section_description: The habitats are primarily within the Colorado Desert ecosystem of the Sonoran Desert ecoregion. The higher extreme northern and eastern sections in the Peninsular Ranges are in the California montane chaparral and woodlands ecoregion.
  The park contains bajadas and desert washes; rock formations and colorful badlands, large arid landscapes, and mountains. The bajadas are predominantly creosote bush-bur sage with creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) and the palo verde-cactus shrub ecosystems with the palo verde tree (Parkinsonia microphylla), cacti, and ocotillo. In the washes, Colorado/Sonoran microphylla woodlands can be found. These woodlands include such plants as smoke tree (Psorothamnus spinosus), velvet mesquite (Prosopis velutina), and catclaw (Acacia greggii).
  The park has natural springs and oases, with the state's only native palm, the California Fan Palm (Washingtonia filifera). Seasonal wildflower displays can be seen in many plant community association throughout the park. The high-country to the north and east has closed-cone pine forests, manzanitas and oak woodlands.
  The oases are prolific with many types of fauna, especially for bird-watching. Throughout the park, visitors may see bighorn sheep, mountain lions, kit foxes, mule deer, coyotes, greater roadrunners, golden eagles, black-tailed jackrabbits, ground squirrels, kangaroo rats, quail, and prairie falcons. In the reptile class, desert iguanas, chuckwallas, and the red diamond rattlesnakes can be seen.
caption: Desert bighorn sheep at Palm Canyon Oasis.
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