The Namibian savanna woodlands stretch along the Namib escarpment from southwestern Angola down into central Namibia, inland and east of the coastal Namib Desert. Vegetation shifts with the terrain: mopane savanna dominated by Colophospermum mopane (with Sesamothamnus benguellensis and S. guerichii) holds the north and east, a semi-desert transition zone carries the quiver tree, Moringa ovalifolia, Euphorbia guerichiana, and Cyphostemma species, while the south opens into dwarf shrub savanna with Rhigozum trichotomum and Acacia nebrownii. The climate is arid to semi-arid, with rainfall falling mostly as summer thunderstorms and rising from roughly 60 mm in the west to about 200 mm in the east, under extreme heat exceeding 40C and occasional winter frost. Rugged massifs such as the Brandberg and the Kaoko escarpment are notable endemism hotspots, and the ecoregion shelters the near-endemic Hartmann's mountain zebra alongside desert-adapted elephant and black rhinoceros. For dry-climate gardeners, several of its signature succulents, including the quiver tree and Moringa ovalifolia, are prized ornamentals native to this landscape.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 21.5°S, 15.0°E.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
Current zone range (2011–2040)
11b-13a
Plotwright
CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
11b-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
39,939 sq mi
Conservation tier
Nature Could Recover (Dinerstein NNH 3)
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 · 52
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: