Flora

Almost all flora on Shra is xerophyte, adapted to desert conditions. It is also able to cope with the seasonal temperature extremes, which would kill most Earth desert vegetation. In the winter the ground freezes like in Earth tundra, yet it is not permafrost. In spring everything melts and then goes parched and scorched in summer.
In response, Shra flora has adopted various strategies. Almost all species have small leaves, needle leaves or just spines to minimize their exposure to the temperature extremes. Many trees are large shrubs or conifers that produce sugars to act as antifreeze in the winter. Dedicious are trees also present but rare, found mainly in oases. True evergreen trees do not exist on Shra.
The second challenge is to obtain water. Retrieving it from fog, like some species do in the Atacama and Namib deserts on Earth is not an option; there is no fog on Shra. Underground, some trees develop roots that can dig tens of meters deep, or sideways to more than one hundred meters. In winter, Shra soil freezes but not permanently, allowing plants to grow a little deeper every summer. Other plants spread their roots wide instead of deep. Many species simply remain small so that they have limited needs and can root wherever opportunities arise. Therefore shrubs and grasses are much more common than trees. An exception are cacti, which can grow to substantial heights. Unlike their American cousins on Earth they are capable of deep dormancy to survive the Shra winter. Examples are the Shra fig, Shra larch, saxaul.

• Berberis:

  

  The Shra variant of the evergreen Red Berberis shrub that can cope with both heat and cold. It is prized by people for its berries and by herbivores for its leaves. Yellow dye is extracted from the bark, which is also rumored to have medicinal qualities. Overgrazing has limited its numbers. It is still fairly common in the mountains, where herbivores cannot reach it, and in oases, where it is protected by humans and surre.
• Brown Saxaul:

  

  One of the few trees that flourish on Shra. It prefers the sandy ergs, where it defies cold, heat, drought, salinity, mineral scarcity and anything else that the harsh planet can throw at it. It often forms the nucleus of a miniature ecosystem that contains smaller plants and animals.
• Iqrta: This plant starts out as a tiny seed that sprouts long, thin roots that slowly absorb nutrients and water from its surroundings. The plant has some control over the roots, can dig with them but also retract them from the soil. The latter is what is does when there is not enough to feed on anymore. Then it lets itself be blown away by the wind to another location, to start foraging anew. Once the 'nut' is large enough, it uses the food supply to grow a stem and flower to start reproducing. Animals and sapients appreciate the irqta as food, though sizable nuts are rare.
• Knotted saltwort and saltbush: As the name suggest, these plants are halophytes. They are found only around Shra's salt lakes. There they grow fast, outcompeting most other species, so the edges of the salt pans can be surrounded by a ring of tangled weeds and bushes.
• Yusam: A typical tough thorny desert bush, able to survive heat and cold and drought. To protect itself from grazing, it secretes a resin that is foul smelling and toxic. The resin does not last long and forms droplets, clumps and beads that quickly harden. These are neither stinking nor poisonous anymore, instead translucent and pretty. Yusam beads, simply called yusam also, can be gathered from all over Shra, though they are quite rare. Many oases accept them as a kind of money.

Fauna

All animals on Shra are xerocoles. Their metabolisms are tuned to preserve as much water as they can. Many species hibernate through the winter, aestivate during the summer, or both.
A few species treat the Shra year as two: one compromising spring and summer, the other autumn and winter. In these short periods they both breed and raise their young. Others take the full year, producing young in the spring, slowing down growth in the summer and reprising in the autumn.

• Camel:
  Shra is home to three species of camels. The first two, the one-humped dromedary (Camelus dromedarius) and the two-humped Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus), are native to Earth too. The former is at home in sand deserts, the latter in rocky deserts. The wild Bactrian camel (Camelus ferus) is not found on Shra.
  Instead, the region is home to the sloth camel. These animals walk a little slower than the other species, loathe to run at a pace and never gallop. They are larger, heavier and about a quarter stronger than Bactrian camels but because of their slowness sloth are not popular with camel riders. In times of extreme hardship, they bunker down, lower their metabolism to a minimum level and sit the trouble out. This allows them to survive dust storms and temperature extremes without much trouble.
• Duwr:
  The duwr is a species with a unique method of locomotion. It is a skinny creature with long, flexible limbs, each fielding not three, but five joints. It can coil itself into a ball, push off with its hands and feet and roll forward. Tough skin and shock-absorbing ligaments make sure that such drives go quite smooth and fast, even over pebble surfaces. Thus it can travel fast while expending little energy. Of course steep slopes and terrain with sizable rocks are awkward, forcing the duwr to drastically slow down. Therefore it is found most in areas with desert pavement, salt plains or even sand dunes. There it uses its quickness to hunt down prey which cannot keep up high speed for long, wearing them out. When it reaches its victim it strikes out with the sharp claws on one or two hands, wounding the prey until it succumbs to blood loss.
• Hazazi:
  These animals are the largest animals on Shra. The average adult weighs about 6 tons, though older and much heavier specimens have been reported. They are sauropods, moving slowly in herds of 10 - 50 individuals. Hazazi cannot stand the cold of the Shra winters, so they migrate back and forth across the latitudes. When they pass, they terrorize the local shrubbery because their strong molars and tough mouths can devour large amounts of even the prickliest bushes. A herd can utterly wreck the vegetation of an oasis and therefore sapients fight them off with noise, fire and javelins. Hazazi have learned to fear the sedentary population and generally travel around the Shra region rather than through it. However occasionally a starved group is so desperate that they invade and brave the defenses.
• Narsk:
  These animals are scavengers, though primarily herbivore. They are the size of goats, less agile but very fast. Above their nose they grow an ivory horn that can reach lengths of about a foot in adults. They use this to dig into the soil, searching for insects, roots and nuts, but also for defense. Narsk are fierce an aggressive animals that, despite all attempts to gain a reliable source of ivory, have never been domesticated by sapients.
• Yumhur:
  The Yumhur looks somewhat like a armadillo-bear with short snout and tail, not with a scaly skin but with a thick coat of shaggy fur. It is unique in that it hibernates not in the winter, but the summer, shielding itself from the heat in deep caves. In winter it emerges and goes hunting and foraging in the cold. It uses it paws to dig out other, smaller, winter-hibernaters, both vegetable and animal.