Zambezian flooded grasslands
RESOLVE 76
The Zambezian flooded grasslands form a scattered Afrotropical ecoregion strung across the seasonally flooded lowlands of the Zambezi basin and neighboring river systems, reaching through Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, and Zambia. Famous enclaves include the Okavango Delta, the Barotse Floodplain, the Kafue Flats, the Bangweulu swamps, the Kilombero Valley, and Lake Chilwa, each set within the wider belt of miombo and mopane savanna. Vegetation is a mosaic of edaphic grassland and semi-aquatic plants, dominated by grasses and sedges such as Echinochloa, Leersia, Oryza, Phragmites, Typha, and Vossia together with papyrus (Cyperus papyrus). The climate is seasonal and tropical, with rains falling in the hot summer months between November and March and a long dry, drought-prone cooler season. These wetlands are exceptionally rich in wildlife, with the lechwe antelope as their flagship species alongside vast herds of blue wildebeest and Cape buffalo and some of Africa's most spectacular concentrations of waterbirds.
About the flooded grasslands & savannas biome
Grasslands and savannas subject to seasonal or year-round flooding, including large wetland complexes. Exceptionally productive, they concentrate waterbirds and aquatic life.
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.
Currently suited · 48
These plants fit the ecoregion as it is today, but the mid-century projection moves them outside their stated zone range — plan for them to struggle by 2070.
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.