Narmada Valley dry deciduous forests
RESOLVE 296
The Narmada Valley dry deciduous forests stretch across central India, concentrated in Madhya Pradesh but reaching into Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh along the Narmada River valley and the adjacent Vindhya and Satpura uplands. This is classic tropical dry broadleaf woodland: a teak-dominated canopy (Tectona grandis) mingled with genera such as Diospyros (Indian ebony), Lagerstroemia, Terminalia, Anogeissus, and Hardwickia, while Terminalia arjuna, Syzygium, and willows line the watercourses. The climate is strongly seasonal, with a seven- to eight-month dry spell broken by the southwest monsoon from June to September that delivers roughly 1,200 to 1,500 mm of rain, prompting trees to shed their leaves to conserve moisture. The region shelters tiger, gaur, sloth bear, blackbuck, and its flagship the Indian wolf, alongside birds like the threatened lesser florican and Indian bustard, though much of the forest is now reduced and dam-fragmented. For gardeners, several of its natives, including Lagerstroemia and Terminalia, are familiar ornamental and shade genera in warm, monsoon-climate plantings.
About the tropical & subtropical dry broadleaf forests biome
Tropical forests that pass through a pronounced dry season, when many trees drop their leaves to conserve water. They hold high biodiversity but are among the most threatened tropical habitats, sensitive to fire and to clearing for agriculture.
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.