Maputaland coastal forests and woodlands
Maputaland coastal forests and woodlands
The Maputaland coastal forests and woodlands span the humid Indian Ocean coastal strip of southern Mozambique, Eswatini, and the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa, reaching inland to the Lebombo Mountains. Rather than a single forest type, the region is a mosaic of plant communities, ranging through savanna, woodland, grassland, palm veld, wetlands, and dunes that hold patches of dense sand forest, the last often dominated by trees such as Cleistanthus schlechteri and Newtonia hildebrandtii. Its climate is seasonally moist and subtropical, with most rain falling in summer and totals dropping from over 1,000 mm a year near the coast to under 600 mm inland, while mean annual temperatures sit around 21 to 23 degrees Celsius. The ecoregion supports an exceptionally diverse and highly endemic flora and is considered critically endangered, with strongholds such as the iSimangaliso Wetland Park; its flagship plant is the Retief cycad. For gardeners, that cycad heritage points to ornamental native cycads of the genus Encephalartos as plants well suited to warm, frost-free coastal conditions.
RESOLVE 19
Afrotropic
11,659 sq mi
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Landscape type
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Plant region
Afrotropic
Region footprint
11,659 sq mi
Habitat pressure
Nature Imperiled (Dinerstein NNH 4)
Source & care
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Use this as the broad planting pattern for the region: Warm, wet, highly productive forests — including tropical rainforests — with closed canopies, near year-round growing seasons, and the richest terrestrial biodiversity on Earth. Low seasonality and high rainfall sustain dense, layered vegetation from canopy to forest floor. For garden decisions, pair that context with the plant list below, then narrow by your site's light, water, soil, and mature-size constraints.
Range & origins
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 26.4°S, 32.5°E.
Region through time
Modern footprint
RESOLVE 2017 maps 11,659 sq mi
This boundary is a modern ecological footprint for Maputaland coastal forests and woodlands, not a permanent line on the planet. It is useful for today's plant and wildlife context because it follows recurring vegetation, climate, landform, and disturbance patterns.
Why here
tropical & subtropical moist broadleaf forests conditions
The region sits in the Afrotropic realm and is classed as tropical & subtropical moist broadleaf forests. Elevation, moisture, fire, soils, coasts, and human land use can all make the real landscape more varied than a single map color suggests.
Change pressure
Nature Imperiled
Plotwright shows this as the current RESOLVE footprint. Over decades to centuries, warming, disturbance, invasive species, land use, and restoration can move the living edge of a region even when the reference map stays fixed.
Similar planting regions
Browse other regions with a similar hot, dry-summer rhythm. Their plant lists can suggest species and combinations worth comparing.
RESOLVE 1 - Afrotropic
Albertine Rift montane forests
The Albertine Rift montane forests cloak the mountains of the western branch of the East African Rift, spanning five countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania, and taking in ranges such as the Virunga and Rwenzori mountains and isolated massifs near Lake Tanganyika. These tropical moist broadleaf forests are rich in the plant families Euphorbiaceae, Rubiaceae, and Meliaceae, with vegetation shifting by elevation from dense lowland forest through moss- and fern-draped montane forest into giant bamboo and high moorland. Although it sits in the heart of tropical Africa, the high terrain gives the region an essentially temperate climate, with annual rainfall generally between 1,200 and 2,200 millimeters and reaching about 3,000 millimeters on the western slopes of the Rwenzori. The ecoregion holds the highest faunal endemism in Africa and is the only home of the mountain gorilla, earning it a place on the Global 200 list of priority conservation areas, with strongholds protected in parks including Virunga, Volcanoes, Bwindi Impenetrable, Nyungwe, and Kahuzi-Biega. Gardeners may recognize the giant montane bamboo that forms a distinct belt across these slopes.
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Zones 11b-13b
+4.2°F by 2070
58,414 sq mi
NNH tier 4
RESOLVE 2 - Afrotropic
Cameroon Highlands forests
The Cameroon Highlands forests cloak the chain of mountains that runs inland from the Gulf of Guinea and forms much of the border between Cameroon and Nigeria, rising to Mount Oku at 3,011 meters. Above roughly 900 meters the slopes carry a mosaic of submontane and montane forest, montane grassland, and bamboo, with characteristic trees such as Podocarpus latifolius, Prunus africana, Syzygium guineense, Nuxia congesta, and Rapanea (Myrsine) melanophloeos. Although it sits in tropical Africa, the altitude keeps mean maximum temperatures below 20 degrees Celsius, while rainfall ranges from around 4,000 mm a year near the coast to 1,800 mm or less further inland. The forests are exceptionally rich in endemic life, including the endangered Cross River gorilla, the flagship Bamenda apalis, and a large suite of amphibians found nowhere else, though forest cover has declined by more than half since the 1960s through farming, logging, and fire.
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Zones 12b-13b
+4.1°F by 2070
14,688 sq mi
NNH tier 4
RESOLVE 3 - Afrotropic
Central Congolian lowland forests
The Central Congolian lowland forests occupy the heart of the Congo Basin within the Democratic Republic of the Congo, filling the Cuvette Centrale south of the great arc of the Congo River, which acts as a natural barrier isolating the basin along its northern, eastern, and western edges. The terrain is largely flat lowland, and its vegetation forms a mosaic: seasonally inundated and permanent swamp forests in the north give way to drier semi-evergreen rainforest and patches of grassland in the south, with dominant canopy trees including Gilbertiodendron dewevrei and Staudtia stipitata. The climate is hot and humid with little seasonal variation, mean maximum temperatures near 30 degrees Celsius in the central portion easing toward the southeast margins. This remote region holds the world's largest populations of the bonobo, which is endemic to the DRC, alongside African forest elephants, the strictly endemic Dryas monkey, and the near-endemic Congo peafowl. Much of it lies within Salonga National Park, one of the largest tropical-forest national parks in the world.
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Zones 13b
+4.1°F by 2070
160,150 sq mi
NNH tier 2
RESOLVE 4 - Afrotropic
Comoros forests
The Comoros forests ecoregion covers the volcanic islands of the Comoros archipelago in the Mozambique Channel between Madagascar and East Africa, including Grande Comore (Ngazidja), Anjouan (Nzwani) and Mohéli (Mwali) of the Union of the Comoros along with Mayotte, a region of France. Its natural cover is tropical moist broadleaf forest, ranging from semi-deciduous and evergreen lowland forest up to montane forest near the peaks, with characteristic canopy trees such as Ocotea comorensis, Khaya, Olea capensis and Prunus africana, and giant heath (Erica comorensis) at the highest elevations. The climate is wet and tropical, with a hot rainy season and a cooler drier season; rainfall is highly uneven, exceeding 5,000 mm a year on some uplands while the driest coasts receive around 1,000 mm. The islands hold roughly 1,000 native plant species, about 30 percent of them endemic, and shelter the Livingstone's fruit bat (Pteropus livingstonii) as a flagship species, though little intact forest remains and the ecoregion is rated critically endangered. For gardeners in warm, humid climates, native ornamentals from here include tree ferns (Alsophila) and the endemic palm Ravenea hildebrandtii.
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Zones 13b
+2.7°F by 2070
797 sq mi
NNH tier 3
RESOLVE 5 - Afrotropic
Congolian coastal forests
The Congolian Coastal Forests (also called the Atlantic Equatorial coastal forests) stretch along Central Africa's Atlantic seaboard from the Sanaga River in Cameroon south through Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, and Cabinda in Angola to the mouth of the Congo River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The dominant cover is coastal evergreen moist broadleaf forest, grading into mixed semi-evergreen forest in the drier south, with coastal grassland and montane forest above 1,000 meters on ranges such as Monte Alen and the Monts de Cristal. The climate is wet tropical with little seasonal variation, rainfall declining from about 2,000 mm a year in the north to 1,200 mm in the south. The ecoregion is a botanical stronghold, holding over 200 strictly endemic plants and three plant families largely confined to tropical Africa, the Huaceae, Medusandraceae, and Scytopetalaceae, while serving as a refuge for the African forest elephant, western lowland gorilla, chimpanzee, and mandrill. Conservation pressure is high, with logging concessions covering nearly the entire region.
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Zones 13a-13b
+3.7°F by 2070
73,277 sq mi
NNH tier 2
RESOLVE 6 - Afrotropic
Cross-Niger transition forests
The Cross-Niger transition forests occupy southeastern Nigeria between the Niger River to the west and the Cross River to the east, spanning the states of Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Ebonyi, and Imo across low, undulating terrain. Once a mosaic of tropical forest and savanna woodland, the surviving rainforest carries characteristic genera such as Brachystegia, Cola, Ficus, Celtis, and Antiaris, alongside the fan palm Borassus aethiopum, grading into drier mixed forest northward. The climate is wet but becomes drier inland, with rainfall declining from south to north and a dry season from December to February. Biologically the region is transitional between the Upper and Lower Guinean forest blocks yet shows extremely low endemism, with the crested chameleon and Sclater's guenon among its few notable species. It is now one of Africa's most densely populated areas, and intensive farming and logging have left its forests in critical, fragmented condition, with large mammals depleted since the 1940s.
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Zones 13b
+3.4°F by 2070
7,998 sq mi
NNH tier 4
Sources & citations
Cite this page
For lesson plans, articles, or regional planting notes that use this Plotwright page. To cite the underlying ecoregion framework or a specific editorial profile, use the source cards below.
Plotwright. (n.d.). Maputaland coastal forests and woodlands (Maputaland coastal forests and woodlands). Retrieved 2026, June 14, from https://plotwright.garden/regions/resolve-19
Sources for this region
This page cites Plotwright first for the compiled view, then lists the upstream framework, climate, and editorial source pages so readers can cite the original material directly.
RESOLVE 2017 Terrestrial Ecoregions (Dinerstein et al.)
Primary ecoregion framework
Backs 4 fields
RESOLVE id
Biome + realm
Area
NNH tier