The Hampton mallee and woodlands stretch along Australia's southern coast, straddling the border of southeastern Western Australia and a smaller portion of South Australia where the Nullarbor Plain meets the Great Australian Bight. The terrain pairs the dune-covered coastal Roe Plains with the limestone Hampton Tableland, a karst escarpment riddled with caves and sinkholes carved from the Eucla Basin. Mallee shrublands and short eucalypt and myall woodlands dominate, with coastal white mallee (Eucalyptus diversifolia) characteristic of the escarpments and dune endemics such as Scaevola crassifolia. The climate is a semi-arid Mediterranean one, with mild to hot summers, cool winters, and modest rainfall that falls mostly in winter. The region shelters the grey currawong and the ground-nesting malleefowl, though feral camels, horses, and rabbits, along with livestock grazing, press on its sensitive dune vegetation. Gardeners may recognize the native desert quandong (Santalum acuminatum), a fruit-bearing species rooted in this country.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 31.9°S, 127.6°E.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
Current zone range (2011–2040)
11b-12b
Plotwright
CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
11b-12b
Plotwright
Where the CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +2.6°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.
At a glance
Dominant biome
Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands & Scrub
Realm
Australasia
Approximate area
4,204 sq mi
Conservation tier
Nature Could Reach Half Protected (Dinerstein NNH 2)
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.
Climate-resilient picks · 52
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 mediterranean forests, woodlands & scrub ecoregions to explore: