The Motagua Valley thornscrub is a small ecoregion confined to the Motagua Valley of eastern Guatemala, in the Neotropic realm and the Deserts and Xeric Shrublands biome. Hemmed in by tall mountains, the Sierra de las Minas to the north and the Sierra del Merendon to the south, the valley floor is one of the driest places in Central America, with high temperatures and less than 500 millimeters of rain a year. Its vegetation is dominated by spiny, drought-adapted plants, including prickly-pear cacti of the genus Opuntia, acacias, and thorny shrubs of the legume family Fabaceae, while permanent watercourses support narrow strips of evergreen riparian forest. The valley is the only place in the world that harbors the critically endangered Motagua Valley beaded lizard (Heloderma charlesbogerti), and it shelters other threatened reptiles such as the Guatemalan spiny-tailed iguana along with 75 recorded bird species. With very little of its habitat protected, the ecoregion is being rapidly cleared by the spread of irrigation agriculture. For gardeners in hot, arid climates, the native Opuntia prickly pears grown here are familiar ornamental and edible succulents.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 15.0°N, 89.7°W.
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)
12a-13b
Plotwright
Where the CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +3.7°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
Neotropic
Approximate area
902 sq mi
Conservation tier
Nature Imperiled (Dinerstein NNH 4)
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: