The Kaokoveld Desert is a coastal ecoregion of the Afrotropic realm, running along the Atlantic edge of southern Africa from northern Namibia up into the Moçâmedes Desert of southern Angola, between the ocean and the foot of the Great Escarpment. Its landscape is a mosaic of shifting sand dunes, gravel plains, and sparse grassland, with characteristic desert genera such as Acanthosicyos, Zygophyllum, Salsola, and the grass Stipagrostis. The climate is hyper-arid and falls within the greater Namib's summer-rainfall zone, with sporadic storms between October and March; life here leans heavily on fog that forms where the cold Benguela Current meets hot desert air and drifts well inland. The region is recognized as a center of floral endemism and shelters desert-adapted elephants, black rhinos, and giraffes, with protection from the Skeleton Coast National Park in Namibia and Iona National Park in Angola. Its emblematic plant is Welwitschia mirabilis, a slow-growing relict gymnosperm with no close living relatives.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 16.2°S, 12.1°E.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
Current zone range (2011–2040)
12a-12b
Plotwright
CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
12b-13a
Plotwright
Where the CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +3.6°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
Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
Realm
Afrotropic
Approximate area
12,845 sq mi
Conservation tier
Half Protected (Dinerstein NNH 1)
About the deserts & xeric shrublands biome
Arid and semi-arid lands where low, erratic rainfall and high evaporation limit vegetation to drought-adapted shrubs, succulents, and sparse grasses. Day-to-night temperature swings are large, and life is finely tuned to water scarcity.
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 deserts & xeric shrublands ecoregions to explore: