Southwest Australia savanna
RESOLVE 205
The Southwest Australia savanna lies in Western Australia, spanning the Avon Wheatbelt, Geraldton Sandplains, and Yalgoo bioregions at the transition between the state's Mediterranean-climate southwest corner and the arid, semi-desert interior to the north and inland. Its original cover is a mosaic of eucalypt woodlands, including York gum, marri, wandoo, salmon gum, and gimlet, intermixed with Allocasuarina woodlands, mallee, shrublands, and heath, with acacias becoming more common in the northern reaches. The climate is a Mediterranean-influenced transition in which heavier winter rains can trigger vast wildflower displays in some years. The ecoregion forms part of the internationally recognized Southwest Australia biodiversity hotspot, and its flagship animal is the nectar-feeding honey possum, though much of the original habitat has been converted to wheat-growing, leaving some of the best-preserved country in and around Kalbarri National Park. For gardeners, several of its native eucalypts, such as wandoo, marri, salmon gum, and gimlet, along with mallee forms, are the kinds of drought-adapted trees suited to dry, Mediterranean-type plantings.
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.
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.