The South Arabian plains and plateau desert spreads across the southern Arabian Peninsula, taking in parts of Oman, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, and includes the Hadhramaut plateau in Yemen and western Oman together with the Jiddat al-Harasis plateau in central Oman. Acacia trees dominate this hot, hyper-arid desert, with sparse grassland dotted by Vachellia tortilis, Stipagrostis grasses, and shrubs such as Zygophyllum and Haloxylon salicornicum, while Ghaf woodlands follow the wadi channels. Summer temperatures climb to around 47C in parts of Oman and ease to about 25C in the cooler months, and average annual rainfall is typically less than 50 mm. The region shelters Arabian oryx, reintroduced to the Al Wusta Wildlife Reserve, alongside Arabian leopard, Nubian ibex, and Arabian wolf, though oil development led Oman to reduce its oryx reserve sharply. For gardeners, the desert is home to Boswellia sacra, the frankincense tree and Oman's national tree, which grows in its western reaches.

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