Renosterveld shrubland
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Renosterveld Shrubland is a Mediterranean-climate ecoregion of the Afrotropic realm, occurring on the coastal lowlands and inland basins of the Cape Floristic Region in southwestern and southeastern South Africa. Its defining habitat is a low shrubland, roughly 1 to 2 meters tall and composed mainly of fine-leaved ericoid shrubs, usually dominated by the grey renosterbos (Elytropappus rhinocerotis, also treated as Dicerothamnus rhinocerotis), with karee, wild rosemary, and wild olive among other characteristic woody plants. The climate is winter-rainfall Mediterranean, with annual rainfall of roughly 250 to 650 millimeters and widespread frost on the higher peaks. Although the Proteas, Ericas, and Restios typical of fynbos occur only in very low abundance here, the renosterveld holds one of the most species-rich assemblages of geophytes in the world and forms part of a flora with strong Cape endemism, yet it is one of the most threatened vegetation types in the world, with less than 2 percent formally conserved after extensive conversion to farmland. For gardeners, the perennial geophytes that thrive in these clay-rich soils come from the iris, amaryllis, hyacinth, and orchid families, the source of many bulbs prized in horticulture.
About the mediterranean forests, woodlands & scrub biome
Regions of hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters supporting drought-adapted shrublands — chaparral, maquis, fynbos — and open woodlands. Fire is a natural shaping force, and these climates hold extraordinary plant diversity and endemism.
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.