The
vast
alluvial
plain
centred
on
Buenos
Aires
Province,
and
radiating
out
into
eastern
Córdoba,
southern
Santa
Fé
and
the
northeast
of
La
Pampa
Province,
was
originally
pampas
grassland,
essentially
treeless
and
famous
for
its
clumps
of
brush-tailed
cortadera
pampas
grass.
However,
its
deep,
extremely
fertile
soils
has
seen
it
become
the
agricultural
heart
of
modern
Argentina,
and
this
habitat
has
almost
entirely
disappeared,
transformed
by
cattle
grazing
and
intensive
arable
farming,
and
by
the
planting
of
introduced
trees
such
as
eucalyptus.
It's
still
possible
to
find
a
few
vestiges
of
marshlands
and
grasslands,
such
as
the
area
of
tall
stipa
grassland
around
Médanos,
to
the
southwest
of
Bahía
Blanca.
Bordering
the
pampas
grasslands
to
the
north
and
west,
across
the
centre
of
Corrientes,
Entre
Ríos,
Santa
Fé,
Córdoba
and
San
Luis
provinces,
is a
semicircular
fringe
of
espinal
woodland
, a
type
of
open
wooded
"parkland"
scenery.
Common
species
of
tree
include
acacia
and,
in
the
north,
the
ñandubay
and
ceibo
,
Argentina's
national
tree,
which
in
spring
produces
a
profusion
of
scarlet,
chilli-pepper-like
blooms.
In
the
north,
espinal
scenery
mixes
in
places
with
the
swamps
and
marshes
of
Mesopotamia,
and
intermixes
with
Monte
Desert
in
the
south.
The
only
type
of
habitat
endemic
to
Argentina
is
the
narrow
strip
of
so-called
monte
scrub
that
is
found
in
the
arid,
sunny
intermontane
valleys
that
lie
in
the
rainshadow
of
the
central
Andes.
They
run
from
northern
Patagonia
through
the
Cuyo
region
and
northwards
as
far
as
Salta
Province,
where
in
some
places
they
separate
the
humid
yungas
from
the
high-mountain
puna
.
Monte
scrub
is
characterized
by
thorny,
chest-high
jarilla
bushes,
which
flower
yellow
in
spring.
In
the
Andean
foothills
and
floodplains
of
the
Mendoza
region,
much
of
this
desert
monte
has
been
irrigated
and
replaced
with
vineyards.
It's
an
interesting
habitat
from
a
wildlife
point
of
view,
for
a
high
number
of
endemic
bird
species,
such
as
the
carbonated
sierra
finch
,
the
sandy
gallito
- a
wren-like
bird
with
a
pale
eye-stripe
-
and
the
cinammon
warbling
finch
(
moneterita
canela
).
