The Santa Lucia Montane Chaparral & Woodlands ecoregion hugs the Pacific coast along California's Santa Lucia Mountains, part of the Southern Coast Ranges, running from the Monterey Peninsula south through rugged Big Sur to areas west of Templeton. Moist western slopes support forests of coast redwood, Douglas-fir, ponderosa pine, and Monterey pine, while drier interiors carry chaparral and oak woodlands. The climate is Mediterranean, with cool, often foggy summers near the coast giving way to hot interior summers. Notably, the region holds the southernmost native stands of coast redwood and the endemic Santa Lucia fir, the rarest and most narrowly distributed fir in North America.

At a glance

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.

Catalog plants suited to this ecoregion

Computed from each plant's stated USDA zone range against this ecoregion's USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 (1991-2020 climatology) via ArcGIS FeatureServer published 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

Curated multi-plant collections whose members all fit this ecoregion's zone range — no won't-grow members smuggled in. Overall fit class shown per collection is the weakest link across its members.

Related ecoregions