The Maputaland coastal forests and woodlands span the humid Indian Ocean coastal strip of southern Mozambique, Eswatini, and the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa, reaching inland to the Lebombo Mountains. Rather than a single forest type, the region is a mosaic of plant communities, ranging through savanna, woodland, grassland, palm veld, wetlands, and dunes that hold patches of dense sand forest, the last often dominated by trees such as Cleistanthus schlechteri and Newtonia hildebrandtii. Its climate is seasonally moist and subtropical, with most rain falling in summer and totals dropping from over 1,000 mm a year near the coast to under 600 mm inland, while mean annual temperatures sit around 21 to 23 degrees Celsius. The ecoregion supports an exceptionally diverse and highly endemic flora and is considered critically endangered, with strongholds such as the iSimangaliso Wetland Park; its flagship plant is the Retief cycad. For gardeners, that cycad heritage points to ornamental native cycads of the genus Encephalartos as plants well suited to warm, frost-free coastal conditions.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 26.4°S, 32.5°E.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
Current zone range (2011–2040)
12a-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: +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
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Realm
Afrotropic
Approximate area
11,659 sq mi
Conservation tier
Nature Imperiled (Dinerstein NNH 4)
About the tropical & subtropical moist broadleaf forests biome
Warm, wet, highly productive forests — including tropical rainforests — with closed canopies, near year-round growing seasons, and the richest terrestrial biodiversity on Earth. Low seasonality and high rainfall sustain dense, layered vegetation from canopy to forest floor.
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 moist broadleaf forests ecoregions to explore: