The Itigi-Sumbu thicket is a small Afrotropical ecoregion of dense shrubland scattered across Tanzania, Zambia, and the adjacent Democratic Republic of the Congo, with stands near the town of Itigi in central Tanzania and in the lowlands between Lakes Mweru Wantipa and Tanganyika in Zambia. Its defining habitat is an extremely dense, primarily deciduous, almost impenetrable thicket roughly three to seven meters tall, built from nearly a hundred woody species including genera such as Baphia, Grewia, and the bushwillow Combretum celastroides, and rooted in distinctive sandy soils underlain by a cement-like duricrust. The climate is hot and seasonally dry, with a multi-month dry period and rainfall that varies sharply between the wetter Zambian sites and the drier Tanzanian ones. The thicket serves as an important refuge for elephants and once sheltered black rhinos before they were eradicated by poaching, and it harbors some endemic plants and invertebrates. It is considered critically threatened, with large portions already cleared for firewood and slash-and-burn cultivation and only a fraction under protection.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 5.6°S, 34.6°E.
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: +4.1°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: