The Southern Anatolian montane conifer and deciduous forests stretch across the Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey and the Amanos, Lebanon, and Anti-Lebanon ranges into Syria, Lebanon, and Israel, on mostly limestone terrain with peaks rising above 3,500 meters. Conifers dominate the slopes, most famously the Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani) alongside Anatolian black pine, Greek juniper, and Taurus fir, while wetter areas hold deciduous oriental hornbeam, oaks, and maples. The climate is montane Mediterranean, with summer drought and high winter precipitation that brings frost and snow at higher elevations. This region holds the highest proportion of endemic species of any Mediterranean zone, and shelters wildlife such as brown bear, lynx, and caracal, including the last natural fallow deer population in Antalya-Düzlerçamı; very little of it is currently protected. For gardeners, it is the native home of the stately, drought-tolerant Cedar of Lebanon, a classic ornamental conifer.

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 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

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