Editing Southwestern United States (section)

==Vegetation and terrain==
Vegetation of the southwest generally includes various types of [[yucca]], along with [[saguaro cactus]], [[barrel cactus]], [[opuntia|prickly pear cactus]], [[desert spoon]], [[creosote bush]], [[sagebrush]], and [[greasewood]]. Many native cacti grow throughout Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and west Texas.<ref name="Weniger 1969 p. 14">{{cite book | last=Weniger | first=D. | title=Cacti of the Southwest: Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana | publisher=University of Texas Press | series=Elma Dill Russell Spencer Foundation Series | year=1969 | isbn=978-0-292-70000-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EauBqShPEVoC&pg=PR14 | access-date=2 June 2023 | page=14}}</ref> [[Steppe]] is also located all over the high plains areas in Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. The mountains of the southwestern states have large tracts of alpine trees.

[[File:Curry County Eastern New Mexico 2010.jpg|thumb|left|The [[High Plains (United States)|High Plains]] in [[Eastern New Mexico]], but also located in [[Colorado Eastern Plains|Eastern Colorado]] and [[West Texas]]]]
Landscape features of the core southwestern areas include mountains, canyons, mesas, [[butte]]s, high broad basins, plateaus, desert lands, and some plains, characteristic of the [[Basin and Range Province]]. The entire southwestern region features semi-arid to arid terrain. The far eastern part of southwestern Texas, for example, the [[Texas Hill Country]], consists of dry, tall, and rugged rocky hills of limestone and granite. [[South Texas]] and the [[Lower Rio Grande Valley|Rio Grande Valley]] is mostly flat with many places consisting of scrub and bare topsoil, much like the deserts further west.