North Saharan Xeric Steppe and Woodland
RESOLVE 833
The North Saharan Xeric Steppe and Woodlands forms the northern fringe of the Sahara, stretching across North Africa through Western Sahara, Morocco, the northern edge of Mauritania, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt. Its mosaic of habitats includes sandy ergs, rocky plateaus, seasonal wadis, and desert oases, supporting steppes of grasses and low shrubs alongside dry woodlands of umbrella thorn acacia (Vachellia tortilis), Atlantic pistachio (Pistacia atlantica), and athel tamarisk (Tamarix aphylla), with tall shrubs such as white weeping broom (Retama raetam), Ziziphus lotus, and Calligonum comosum. The climate is hot and dry in summer, when temperatures climb toward 40–45°C, and cooler with sparse, erratic winter rain that arrives from Mediterranean systems. Many plants survive as ephemerals, germinating after winter rains and flowering before the spring drought. The endangered slender-horned gazelle is the ecoregion's flagship species, sharing the dunes with fennec foxes, sand cats, and dorcas gazelles, yet only a small fraction of this vast landscape is currently protected.
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.
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.