The Trans Fly savanna and grasslands form one of the most extensive lowland regions on New Guinea, running along the island's southern coast across both Indonesian Papua and Papua New Guinea, and taking their name from the Fly River. Unlike the rainforest that blankets most of the island, this is open grassland and savanna interspersed with patches of dry evergreen forest, with characteristic trees including Eucalyptus, Albizia, and Melaleuca, plus Schizostachyum bamboo along the forest margins. The climate is seasonally dry and monsoonal, with a pronounced dry season more reminiscent of northern Australia than of New Guinea, and the savannas are renewed by fires that local communities set toward the end of the dry season. Where land floods in the wet season, Melaleuca forest takes over, and the ecoregion shelters distinctive wildlife such as the magpie goose, bronze quoll, and dusky pademelon. Much of it remains intact, with Wasur National Park and the Tonda Wildlife Management Area together protecting close to 40 percent of the region. For gardeners, several genera native here, notably Eucalyptus and Melaleuca, are widely grown ornamentals well suited to seasonally dry conditions.

At a glance

About the tropical & subtropical grasslands, savannas & shrublands biome

Warm grasslands and savannas where grasses dominate and trees are scattered, maintained by seasonal rainfall, grazing, and fire. They support large herbivore communities and respond sharply to wet–dry cycles.

Catalog plants suited to this ecoregion

No catalog plants intersect this ecoregion's zone range. As the catalog grows to cover this region's climate band, suggestions will surface here.

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.

Related ecoregions