The Red Sea-Arabian Desert shrublands trace the eastern flank of the Red Sea across six nations, running from southwest Yemen north past the Dead Sea through Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Palestine. Its desert interior carries scanty shrublands of Acacia and Haloxylon mixed with Artemisia, Anabasis, and Ziziphus spina-christi, while coastal margins hold Avicennia mangroves and salt marshes with Suaeda and Zygophyllum; higher ground such as Wadi Rum supports Juniperus alongside remnant pistachio, fig, olive, and date palms. The climate is hot and arid, with generally low and variable annual rainfall. Despite the aridity the mountains of southern Sinai are notably rich, supporting hundreds of vascular plant species including local endemics, and the region serves as a major bird migration corridor; the sooty falcon is its flagship species, though only a small fraction of the ecoregion is currently protected.

At a glance

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.

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.

Related ecoregions