Bosque

Bosque is the name for areas of gallery forest found along the riparian flood plains of stream and river banks in the southwestern United States. It derives its name from the Spanish word for woodlands.

In the predominantly arid or semi-arid southwestern United States, the bosque is an oasis-like ribbon of green vegetation, often canopied, that only exists near rivers, streams, or other water courses. The most notable bosque is a 200 miles (320 km)-long ecosystem along the middle Rio Grande in New Mexico that extends from Santa Fe past Socorro including the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.

The trees in the bosque habitat are generally smaller species which rarely exceed 10 metres (33 ft), such as mesquite. Larger cottonwood trees are also common in some areas. Because there is only a single canopy layer and because the tree species found in the bosque are generally deciduous, a wide variety of shrubs, grasses, and other understory vegetation is also supported. Desert hackberry, blue palo verde, graythorn (Condalia lycioides), Mexican elder (Sambucus mexicana ), "virgin's bower", and "Indian root" all flourish in the bosque. The habitat also supports a large variety of lichens. For a semi-arid region, there is extraordinary biodiversity at the interface of the bosque and surrounding desert ecosystems.

Certain subsets of vegetative association are defined within the Kuchler scheme, including the Mesquite Bosque.