The Humid Chaco is a Neotropical grassland, savanna, and shrubland ecoregion in the Paraná River basin, spanning central Paraguay, northern Argentina, and small portions of southwestern Brazil and northwestern Uruguay; Asunción lies within it. Its vegetation forms a mosaic of grasslands, palm savanna, and forest, with caranday palm (Copernicia alba) defining open savannas and hardwoods such as the red and white quebrachos (Schinopsis balansae, Aspidosperma quebracho-blanco) and carob trees (Prosopis) anchoring the woodlands. The climate is tropical in the north and grades to subtropical southward, with rainfall heaviest from January to April and decreasing from the wetter east (around 1,300 mm) toward the drier west (around 750 mm). The giant anteater is a flagship species here, adapted to feeding on the termite mounds that dot the semi-open habitat alongside jaguars, marsh deer, and maned wolves, though cattle ranching, logging, and clearing have heavily reduced the original vegetation. For gardeners, the region's native flowering trees include the pink trumpet (Tabebuia/ipê) and silk floss tree, both grown ornamentally.
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.
Currently suited · 48
These plants fit the ecoregion as it is today, but the mid-century projection moves them outside their stated zone range — plan for them to struggle by 2070.
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.