Nama Karoo shrublands
Nama Karoo shrublands
The Nama Karoo shrublands occupy the arid central plateau of the western interior of South Africa, spanning the Northern Cape along with northern parts of the Western and Eastern Cape, and extending into the southern interior of Namibia. The dominant cover is an open, grassy dwarf shrubland in which shrubs such as Drosanthemum, Eriocephalus, Galenia, Pentzia, Pteronia, and Ruschia mix with perennial grasses including Aristida, Digitaria, Enneapogon, and Stipagrostis, while taller trees like Acacia karroo, Diospyros lycioides, Grewia robusta, and Rhus lancea are largely confined to watercourses. The climate is harsh and unpredictable, with annual rainfall of roughly 100 to 500 millimetres that peaks between December and March and decreases from east to west and north to south, mid-summer highs above 30 degrees Celsius, sub-freezing mid-winter nights, and day-to-night swings as large as 25 degrees Celsius. Wildlife is relatively species-poor with few strict endemics, the martial eagle serving as a flagship species and only two small mammals, Visagie's golden mole and Grant's rock rat, being strictly endemic. Only about one percent of the ecoregion is protected, with pressures from livestock grazing, increased fire frequency, and invasion by Prosopis.
RESOLVE 101
Afrotropic
62,499 sq mi
Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
Tipo de paisagem
Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
Região vegetal
Afrotropic
Pegada da região
62,499 sq mi
Pressão sobre o habitat
Nature Could Recover (Dinerstein NNH 3)
Origem e cuidado
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Use isto como o padrão geral de plantio para a região: Arid and semi-arid lands where low, erratic rainfall and high evaporation limit vegetation to drought-adapted shrubs, succulents, and sparse grasses. Day-to-night temperature swings are large, and life is finely tuned to water scarcity. Para decisões de jardim, combine esse contexto com a lista de plantas abaixo e depois refine pelas restrições de luz, água, solo e tamanho adulto do seu local.
Range & origins
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 31.3°S, 23.4°E.
A região ao longo do tempo
Pegada moderna
RESOLVE 2017 mapeia 62,499 sq mi
Este limite é uma pegada ecológica moderna de Nama Karoo shrublands, não uma linha permanente no planeta. É útil para o contexto atual de plantas e fauna porque segue padrões recorrentes de vegetação, clima, relevo e perturbações.
Por que aqui
Condições de deserts & xeric shrublands
A região fica no reino Afrotropic e é classificada como deserts & xeric shrublands. Altitude, umidade, fogo, solos, costas e o uso humano da terra podem tornar a paisagem real mais variada do que uma única cor no mapa sugere.
Pressão de mudança
Nature Could Recover
O Plotwright mostra isto como a pegada RESOLVE atual. Ao longo de décadas a séculos, o aquecimento, as perturbações, as espécies invasoras, o uso da terra e a restauração podem mover a borda viva de uma região mesmo quando o mapa de referência permanece fixo.
Regiões de plantio semelhantes
Explore outras regiões com um ritmo semelhante de verões quentes e secos. Suas listas de plantas podem sugerir espécies e combinações que valem a pena comparar.
RESOLVE 91 - Afrotropic
Aldabra Island xeric scrub
The Aldabra Island xeric scrub covers the coral atoll of Aldabra in the Seychelles, an isolated landform in the western Indian Ocean lying roughly 400 km northwest of Madagascar. Its xeric vegetation falls into two main types: dense thickets of Pemphis acidula on the saline, low-lying ground, and a mixed scrub of low trees, shrubs, herbs, and grasses spread across most of the atoll. The climate is tropical, with an average annual temperature near 27 degrees Celsius and about 1,200 mm of rainfall, split into a wetter season from November to April and a drier stretch from May to October. The terrestrial flora includes roughly nine fern species and 178 flowering plants, of which about 38 percent are thought to be endemic. Aldabra is best known for hosting the world's largest population of giant tortoises and the flightless Aldabra white-throated rail, and the atoll has been protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1982.
Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
Zones 13b
+2.7°F by 2070
62 sq mi
NNH tier 1
RESOLVE 92 - Afrotropic
Djibouti xeric shrublands
The Djibouti xeric shrublands form a semi-desert belt along the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden coasts of the Horn of Africa, spanning Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Somalia (including Somaliland) and encompassing the Afar Triangle, a lowland that drops as much as 160 metres below sea level at fault depressions such as the Danakil and Lac Assal. Vegetation grades from coastal mangroves into open grass and shrub steppe, with thorny acacias such as Acacia (Vachellia) tortilis and Senegalia mellifera, the spiny Rhigozum somalense, and the desert date Balanites aegyptiaca characteristic of the sandy plains and basaltic lava fields. The climate is extremely hot and arid, with mean annual rainfall ranging from under 100 millimetres near the coast to around 200 millimetres further inland, and the tectonically active rift includes some of the hottest sites in Africa. The ecoregion is notable for harboring the last viable population of the African wild ass alongside the endemic Archer's lark and the dragon tree Dracaena ombet, which clings to higher arid hills. For gardeners in hot, dry climates, several drought-adapted natives here—the architectural Dracaena dragon trees and tough Acacia and Balanites genera—are familiar xeric ornamentals.
Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
Zones 12a-13b
+4.5°F by 2070
91,801 sq mi
NNH tier 3
RESOLVE 93 - Afrotropic
Eritrean coastal desert
The Eritrean coastal desert is a narrow, arid strip running along the southern Red Sea coast of Eritrea and Djibouti, a flat sand-and-gravel plain lying below about 200 metres and broken by rocky outcrops. Vegetation is sparse herbaceous steppe dotted with scattered umbrella thorn (Acacia tortilis) and Acacia asak, alongside drought-hardy grasses such as Panicum turgidum, Cymbopogon schoenanthus, and Lasiurus scindicus, with halophytic plants and small mangrove stands in sheltered coastal creeks. The climate is extremely hot and dry, with annual rainfall averaging under 100 millimetres and highly variable from year to year, and minimum temperatures among the highest recorded anywhere in Africa. Despite the harsh setting, the region still supports Dorcas and Soemmerring's gazelles along with the diminutive Salt's dik-dik, and the adjacent Bab-el-Mandeb Strait channels one of the world's largest intercontinental raptor migrations each autumn, when hundreds of thousands of birds of prey cross from Arabia into Africa. For gardeners in hot, dry climates, the native umbrella thorn acacias and clumping desert grasses found here illustrate the kind of heat- and drought-tolerant planting the region naturally favours.
Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
Zones 13a-13b
+4.0°F by 2070
1,773 sq mi
NNH tier 3
RESOLVE 94 - Afrotropic
Gariep Karoo
The Gariep Karoo is an arid, open shrubland in the Afrotropic realm that stretches from the middle of South Africa's Northern Cape northward across the Orange River (also called the Gariep River, which forms the border between the Northern Cape and Namibia's ǁKaras Region) into southern Namibia. Its sparse, low-shrub vegetation is dominated by succulent dwarf shrubs and tall stem-succulents including quiver trees, with characteristic genera such as Drosanthemum, Eriocephalus, Galenia, Pentzia, Pteronia and Ruschia, alongside perennial grasses like Aristida and Stipagrostis. The climate is harsh, with mid-summer maximum temperatures exceeding 36 degrees Celsius, mid-winter minimums dropping below freezing, frequent droughts, and annual rainfall between 50 and 500 millimetres that decreases from east to west. The region holds the dramatic Fish River Canyon in southern Namibia and supports the ferruginous lark, its endemic flagship bird, yet it remains poorly protected against a 40 percent conservation target. For gardeners in dry climates, its drought-hardy natives such as quiver trees and succulent shrubs in the genera Ruschia and Drosanthemum are well suited to xeric, low-water plantings.
Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
Zones 10b-12b
+3.6°F by 2070
97,361 sq mi
NNH tier 2
RESOLVE 95 - Afrotropic
Hobyo grasslands and shrublands
The Hobyo grasslands and shrublands form a long, narrow coastal strip in Somalia, running along the Indian Ocean from south of Mogadishu northwards past the town of Hobyo, where a belt of wind-built dunes some 10 to 15 kilometers wide fringes the shore. The dunes carry distinctive grassland and low scrub: wind-tolerant grasses and sedges first colonize the bare sand, while denser thickets of Aerva javanica, Indigofera sparteola, and Jatropha pelargoniifolia hold the more stable ground. The climate is hot and dry, with rainfall concentrated in a short April-to-June season as the Intertropical Convergence Zone shifts north. Part of the Somali-Masai centre of plant endemism, the ecoregion shelters several species found nowhere else, including the silver dik-dik, the Somali golden mole, and the endemic Ash's lark and Obbia lark, yet it lies almost entirely outside any protected area. Gardeners working hot, sandy, low-water sites may recognize relatives of its native dune flora, such as the drought-hardy Aerva and Indigofera.
Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
Zones 13b
+3.6°F by 2070
5,192 sq mi
NNH tier 4
RESOLVE 96 - Afrotropic
Ile Europa and Bassas da India xeric scrub
This Afrotropic desert and xeric shrubland ecoregion covers two small coralline islands, Europa and Bassas da India, a French overseas territory scattered in the Mozambique Channel about a third of the way from southern Madagascar toward southern Mozambique, with the two islands lying roughly 100 km apart. The low-lying landscape of Europa is clothed in dry forest of silver thicket (Euphorbia stenoclada), a grassy herbaceous formation of Sclerodactylon macrostachyum, coastal shrubland including bay cedar (Suriana maritima), and mangrove swamps of Rhizophora mucronata fringing a shallow lagoon open to the sea. The climate is semi-arid and tropical with wet summers and dry winters, dominated by southeast trade winds in the austral winter and the occasional cyclone. The islands are an internationally important refuge: Europa is one of the world's largest nesting grounds for green sea turtles and hosts a major great frigatebird colony along with endemic lizards and seabirds, and the area is protected as a Ramsar wetland. For gardeners, the native flora here is dominated by drought-tolerant succulent Euphorbia and salt-tolerant coastal genera adapted to heat and limited rainfall.
Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
Zones 13b
+2.8°F by 2070
8 sq mi
NNH tier 4
Sources & citations
Cite this page
Para planos de aula, artigos ou notas de plantio regionais que usem esta página do Plotwright. Para citar a estrutura de ecorregiões subjacente ou um perfil editorial específico, use os cartões de fontes abaixo.
Plotwright. (n.d.). Nama Karoo shrublands (Nama Karoo shrublands). Retrieved 2026, June 15, from https://plotwright.garden/regions/resolve-101
Fontes para esta região
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RESOLVE 2017 Terrestrial Ecoregions (Dinerstein et al.)
Estrutura principal de ecorregiões
Backs 4 fields
ID do RESOLVE
Bioma + reino
Área
Nível NNH