The Albany Thickets ecoregion lies in South Africa's Eastern Cape, concentrated in the wide valleys of the Great Fish, Sundays, and Gamtoos rivers around the Albany region. It forms a dense, spiny shrubland and woodland with a canopy up to about 2.5 metres tall, growing on well-drained sandy soils and rich in succulents such as the porkbush (Portulacaria afra), jade plant (Crassula ovata), aloes, and succulent Euphorbia, alongside trees like Schotia afra. The climate is dry, hot in summer and cold in winter, with inland valleys swinging from near 0 degrees C to over 40 degrees C and receiving low, irregular rainfall. The thickets form part of the Cape Floristic Region and are a noted center of endemism for succulent Euphorbia, while Addo Elephant National Park protects African bush elephants and black rhinoceros within the region. For gardeners, the spekboom (Portulacaria afra) and jade plant native here are both widely grown ornamental, drought-tolerant succulents.

At a glance

About the mediterranean forests, woodlands & scrub biome

Regions of hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters supporting drought-adapted shrublands — chaparral, maquis, fynbos — and open woodlands. Fire is a natural shaping force, and these climates hold extraordinary plant diversity and endemism.

Catalog plants suited to this ecoregion

Computed from each plant's stated USDA zone range against this ecoregion's CHELSA-derived current zone range, with the CHELSA mid-century warming delta applied for the projection. Plants whose stated range falls outside both the current and projected zone end up dropped; the rest land in one of the three buckets below.

Collections for this ecoregion

No curated collection's plants all fit this ecoregion's zone range. We surface a collection only when every member would grow here — partial fits get filtered out rather than mislead. As the catalog and the curated set both grow, this section will fill in.

Related ecoregions