This Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands & Scrub ecoregion traces the eastern Mediterranean coastline of the Middle East, spanning Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, and Jordan (with extensions into Iraq and Saudi Arabia). Its forests are dominated by Calabrian (Turkish) pine in the north and Aleppo pine in the south, giving way along the shore to evergreen maquis of olive, carob, and Kermes (Palestinian) oak, with dry oak woodlands and steppe inland. The climate is classically Mediterranean, with mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers, and vegetation ranging from sea level up to about 1,800 meters. The striped hyena serves as the ecoregion's flagship species, though large predators such as lion, Syrian brown bear, and cheetah have largely been extirpated; the region is also a center for crop wild relatives of wheat, lentils, and peas. For gardeners, native genera here including European olive, carob, terebinth, fig, and laurel have long supplied nutritional, medicinal, and ornamental value.

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