Jos Plateau forest-grassland
RESOLVE 82
The Jos Plateau forest-grassland mosaic is an isolated Afromontane upland in central Nigeria, spanning Plateau, Bauchi, and Kaduna states across high plains around 1,280 to 1,300 metres, with granite hill ranges rising well above 1,700 metres. It is an island of montane savanna, woodland, and forest set within the surrounding lowland savanna, where dense savanna woodland was likely the natural climax; today most of the plateau is open grassland, with woodland and riparian forest persisting on steep, inaccessible sites. Characteristic woodland trees include Isoberlinia doka, Vitex doniana, Lannea schimperi, and Uapaca somon, while bushland and scrub support Carissa edulis, Diospyros abyssinica, Ficus glumosa, Olea capensis, and several Euphorbia species. Because of its elevation the climate is tropical but cooler than the surrounding lowlands, with highly seasonal rainfall falling mostly between June and September and ranging from roughly 2,000 millimetres in the southwest to about 1,500 millimetres in the northeast. Though small, the plateau harbours notable endemics including the Nigerian mole rat, Fox's shaggy rat, the rock firefinch, and the Jos Plateau indigobird, and it holds West Africa's only population of klipspringer, yet it faces heavy pressure from farmland conversion, firewood collection, and a legacy of abandoned tin mining. For gardeners, native woody plants such as the wild olive Olea capensis, the fig Ficus glumosa, and Vitex doniana suit similar warm, seasonally dry montane conditions.
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.
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.
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.