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endemic to the Mojave Desert. The Mojave Desert is a desert bordered to the west by the Sierra Nevada mountain range and the
California montane chaparral and woodlands, and to the south and east by the Sonoran Desert. The boundaries to the east of the Mojave Desert are less distinctive than the other boundaries because there is no presence of an indicator species, such as the
Joshua tree (
Yucca brevifolia), which is endemic to the Mojave Desert. The Mojave Desert is distinguished from the Sonoran Desert and other deserts adjacent to it by its warm temperate climate, as well as
flora and fauna such as
ironwood (
Olneya tesota),
blue Palo Verde (
Parkinsonia florida),
chuparosa (
Justicia californica),
spiny menodora (
Menodora spinescens),
desert senna (
Cassia armata),
California dalea (
Psorothamnus arborescens),
California fan palm (
Washingtonia filifera) and
goldenhead (
Acamptopappus shockleyi). Along with these other factors, these plants differentiate the Mojave from the nearby Sonoran Desert. The other is the
Amargosa River, which flows partly underground through the Mojave Desert along a southward path. The Manix, Mojave, and the Little Mojave lakes are large but shallow. It receives annual average precipitation of , although regions at high altitudes such as the portion of the Mojave Desert in the
San Gabriel mountains may receive more rain. The Mojave Desert has not historically supported a
fire regime because of low fuel loads and connectivity. However, in the last few decades, invasive annual plants such as some within the genera
Bromus,
Schismus and
Brassica have facilitated fires by serving as a fuel bed. This has significantly altered many areas of the desert. At higher elevations, fire regimes are regular but infrequent. }} {{Weather box
Cities and regions While the Mojave Desert is generally sparsely populated, it has increasingly become urbanized in recent years.
St. George, Utah, is the northeasternmost metropolitan area in the Mojave, with a population of around 180,000 in 2020, and is located at the convergence of the Mojave, Great Basin, and Colorado Plateau. The Los Angeles exurban area of
Lancaster-
Palmdale has more than 400,000 residents, and the
Victorville area to its east (also known as
Victor Valley) has around 550,000 residents. The Mojave Desert has several
ghost towns. The most significant are the silver and copper-mining town of
Calico, California, and the old railroad depot of
Kelso, California. Some of the other ghost towns are more modern, created when
U.S. Route 66 (and the lesser-known
U.S. Route 91) was abandoned in favor of the construction of
Interstates.
CA SR 14,
Interstate 15,
Interstate 40,
CA SR 58,
CA SR 138,
US Route 95, and
US Route 395 are the main highways that traverse the Mojave Desert. == Geology ==