Southeast Australia temperate savanna
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The Southeast Australia temperate savanna is a belt of eucalyptus-dotted grassland that runs north to south across central New South Wales and into Victoria, Australia, taking in the Riverina in the south and the Darling River basin in the north. Its characteristic cover is grassy open woodland: coolibah and box eucalypts on the plains, river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) lining the rivers, and native tussock grasses such as Mitchell grass, with scattered Acacia, Callitris, and Casuarina. As a transition zone between the moist eastern coast and the arid interior, it receives low and irregular rainfall of roughly 300 to 500 mm a year that thins westward until the vegetation grades into shrub-steppe. The bridled nailtail wallaby is the ecoregion's flagship species, though most of the landscape has been heavily altered by wheat farming and livestock grazing, with remnants protected in reserves such as Barmah and Warrumbungle National Parks. For gardeners, several native genera here, including river red gum, Acacia (wattles), and the cypress-pine Callitris, are valued ornamental and shade plants well suited to dry, semi-arid conditions.
About the temperate grasslands, savannas & shrublands biome
Temperate prairies, steppes, and pampas of grasses and forbs with few trees, under continental climates of hot summers and cold winters. Their deep, fertile soils have made them among the most extensively converted biomes for agriculture.
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.