Country

Mexico

Mexico: 45 ecoregions. Each with its climate now and toward 2050, and its conservation tier.

Landscape and climate

Forty-five ecoregions reach Mexico, spanning the Nearctic-Neotropic boundary that runs through the country itself. The north is desert country: the Chihuahuan desert, Sonoran desert, Baja California desert, and a run of matorral and mezquital shrublands. The great mountain chains carry pine-oak forest, from the Sierra Madre Occidental and Oriental down to the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt and Sierra Madre del Sur. The Pacific slope and interior basins hold an exceptional concentration of tropical dry forests (Balsas, Jalisco, Sinaloan, Southern Pacific, Yucatán), while Veracruz, Chiapas, and the Petén lowlands support moist broadleaf forest, with mangroves fringing both coasts. For gardeners this means climate is dictated by elevation and rain shadow more than latitude: expect anything from cactus-and-agave xeric plantings to cloud-forest conditions within a short drive, and choose plants by local ecoregion, not by country.

Ecoregions here

Baja California desert Bajío dry forests Balsas dry forests California coastal sage and chaparral California montane chaparral and woodlands Central American dry forests Central American pine-oak forests Central Mexican matorral Chiapas Depression dry forests Chiapas montane forests Chihuahuan desert Chimalapas montane forests Gulf of California xeric scrub Islas Revillagigedo dry forests Jalisco dry forests Meseta Central matorral Mesoamerican Gulf-Caribbean mangroves Northern Mesoamerican Pacific mangroves Oaxacan montane forests Pantanos de Centla Petén-Veracruz moist forests San Lucan xeric scrub Sierra de la Laguna dry forests Sierra de la Laguna pine-oak forests Sierra de los Tuxtlas Sierra Madre de Chiapas moist forests Sierra Madre de Oaxaca pine-oak forests Sierra Madre del Sur pine-oak forests Sierra Madre Occidental pine-oak forests Sierra Madre Oriental pine-oak forests Sinaloan dry forests Sonoran desert Sonoran-Sinaloan subtropical dry forest Southern Mesoamerican Pacific mangroves Southern Pacific dry forests Tamaulipan matorral Tamaulipan mezquital Tehuacán Valley matorral Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt pine-oak forests Veracruz dry forests Veracruz moist forests Veracruz montane forests Western Gulf coastal grasslands Yucatán dry forests Yucatán moist forests