The Paraguaná xeric scrub stretches across northwestern Venezuela, centered on the Falcón and Lara states and the windswept Paraguaná Peninsula north and east of Lake Maracaibo, reaching offshore to the islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. Its vegetation is built for drought: halophytes and dune plants on the saline coast give way inland to stunted thorn scrub, low trees, and cactus, with genera such as Prosopis (mesquite), the columnar cactus Stenocereus griseus, and prickly pear Opuntia, while deciduous and cloud forests survive only on higher ground like Cerro Santa Ana. The climate is hot and arid, classed as BSh steppe, with rainfall on the peninsula typically under 300 millimeters a year and persistent northeast trade winds driving the dryness. Biologically it is distinctive but stressed: it shelters the endemic, threatened red siskin and the vulnerable yellow-shouldered amazon, and the WWF rates it Critical/Endangered, with protected areas such as Médanos de Coro National Park guarding remaining habitat against grazing, logging, and agricultural conversion. For gardeners in hot, dry climates, the region's native mesquite and Opuntia and Stenocereus cacti are familiar xeriscape and ornamental succulents.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 10.8°N, 70.1°W.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
Current zone range (2011–2040)
12b-13b
Plotwright
CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
13a-13b
Plotwright
Where the CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +3.3°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
6,166 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.
Currently suited · 4
These plants fit the ecoregion as it is today, but the mid-century projection moves them outside their stated zone range — plan for them to struggle by 2070.
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: