The Tamaulipan mezquital spans the southwestern Gulf Coastal Plain of southern Texas and northeastern Mexico, reaching from near San Antonio south into Tamaulipas and west toward the Rio Grande. Its characteristic landscape is mesquite grassland and dense thornscrub of spiny shrubs, with open woodlands and riparian zones; honey mesquite is a dominant plant and Mexican sabal palm once lined the Rio Grande. The climate is semiarid subtropical, with average annual precipitation across most of the region in the 400-1000 mm range and humidity moderated by the Gulf of Mexico. Part of the North American Coastal Plain biodiversity hotspot, the ecoregion is heavily degraded, with only about 8% protected and roughly 23% of unprotected habitat remaining intact.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 27.5°N, 99.7°W.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
Current zone range (2011–2040)
10b-12b
Plotwright
CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
10b-13a
Plotwright
Where the CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +3.8°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
Deserts & Xeric Shrublands
Realm
Nearctic
Approximate area
48,379 sq mi
Conservation tier
Nature Could Recover (Dinerstein NNH 3)
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.
National refinement sub-regions
Within this RESOLVE ecoregion, national agencies recognise finer-grained sub-regions. Plotwright assigns each sub-region polygon to its containing RESOLVE polygon by centroid.
EPA Level III (US-only) — 1 sub-region
31 · Southern Texas Plains
Source: USGS / EPA via Omernik (1987).
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 · 79
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 deserts & xeric shrublands ecoregions to explore: