The Southern Swahili Coastal Forests and Woodlands trace the East African coast from the Lukuledi River in southern Tanzania southward through Mozambique, a narrow belt that mostly reaches less than 50 kilometers inland but rises onto isolated plateaus such as the Rondo, Makonde, and Mueda. Rather than a single forest, it is a mosaic of tropical moist and dry forest, miombo woodland, thicket, savanna grassland, and wetland, with northern dry forests carrying trees such as Manilkara sansibarensis, Baphia macrocalyx, and Pteleopsis myrtifolia. The climate is tropical in the north and subtropical toward the south, shaped by monsoon winds that deliver one long dry season and a single wet season, with rainfall around 800 to 1,000 millimeters a year and more on the plateaus. Despite its small remaining patches, the region is a notable center of plant endemism, holding more than 150 strictly endemic plants, and the Rondo Plateau alone packs over 60 endemic species into a tiny area of forest. The green barbet serves as the ecoregion's flagship species, and much of the surviving habitat is now confined to forest reserves.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 11.1°S, 39.6°E.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
Current zone range (2011–2040)
12a-13b
Plotwright
CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
12b-13b
Plotwright
Where the CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +3.5°F by mid-century. SSP3-7.0 (current trajectory) · CHELSA v2.1 bio06 sampled across 10 of 10 points within this ecoregion's bounding box.
At a glance
Dominant biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Realm
Afrotropic
Approximate area
57,939 sq mi
Conservation tier
Nature Imperiled (Dinerstein NNH 4)
About the tropical & subtropical moist broadleaf forests biome
Warm, wet, highly productive forests — including tropical rainforests — with closed canopies, near year-round growing seasons, and the richest terrestrial biodiversity on Earth. Low seasonality and high rainfall sustain dense, layered vegetation from canopy to forest floor.
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.
Climate-resilient picks · 4
These plants fit this ecoregion today AND remain in range under the mid-century SSP3-7.0 projection. Lead with these for a planting that holds up as the climate shifts.
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
Other tropical & subtropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregions to explore: