The Guinean forest-savanna mosaic is a broad east-west band of interlaced forest, savanna, and grassland that runs across West Africa, stretching from Senegal and the Gambia through Guinea, Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, and Benin to Nigeria and Cameroon, where it separates the moist forests near the coast from the West Sudanian savanna inland. Its savannas are dominated by tall, fire-tolerant grasses of the genera Andropogon, Hyparrhenia, and Pennisetum, interspersed with scattered trees such as the fire-resistant Lophira lanceolata, while gallery and groundwater forests carry semi-evergreen Guineo-Congolian species. The climate has distinct wet and dry seasons, with annual rainfall typically between 1,600 and 2,000 mm but dropping to 1,000 mm or less in the drier Dahomey Gap of Togo and Benin. That gap is ecologically pivotal, dividing the Upper Guinean forests to the west from the Lower Guinean forests to the east, and the wider region shelters chimpanzees, forest elephants, and pygmy hippos, with about 16 percent of the ecoregion under protection as of 2017. Gardeners may recognize native useful trees of its anthropogenic woodlands, including the oil palm and the African locust bean.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 8.9°N, 1.6°W.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
Current zone range (2011–2040)
12b-13b
Plotwright
CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
12b-13b
Plotwright
Where the CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +3.5°F by mid-century. SSP3-7.0 (current trajectory) · CHELSA v2.1 bio06 sampled across 10 of 10 points within this ecoregion's bounding box.
About the tropical & subtropical grasslands, savannas & shrublands biome
Warm grasslands and savannas where grasses dominate and trees are scattered, maintained by seasonal rainfall, grazing, and fire. They support large herbivore communities and respond sharply to wet–dry cycles.
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.
Climate-resilient picks · 4
These plants fit this ecoregion today AND remain in range under the mid-century SSP3-7.0 projection. Lead with these for a planting that holds up as the climate shifts.
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
Other tropical & subtropical grasslands, savannas & shrublands ecoregions to explore: