Highveld grasslands
RESOLVE 81
The Highveld Grasslands cover the high interior plateau of South Africa, stretching across the Free State and Gauteng and into parts of the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, North West, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga provinces, with extensions into Lesotho and Eswatini, generally at elevations of about 1,400 to 1,800 metres. This is a montane grassland ecoregion rather than savanna, divided into sweet grasslands, sour grasslands, and a Kalahari-Karoo transition zone, with dominant grasses such as Themeda triandra, Eragrostis species, Panicum coloratum, and Brachiaria serrata, interspersed with forbs like Helichrysum rugulosum. The climate is summer-rainfall, with a mean annual rainfall between 400 and 900 millimetres delivered largely by afternoon thunderstorms from November through January, and cold, frost-prone winters. Though highly fragmented and largely converted to agriculture, its remaining tracts are the largest areas of grassland left in South Africa, and the region is the stronghold of the blue crane, South Africa's national bird, alongside endemic species such as Botha's lark. For gardeners, the native everlastings of the genus Helichrysum offer a horticulturally familiar link to this grassland flora.
About the montane grasslands & shrublands biome
High-elevation grasslands, meadows, and shrublands above the treeline or in mountain basins, including alpine and páramo systems. Cool temperatures, intense sunlight, and specialized, often endemic flora characterize them.
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.