Country

Saint Helena: 2 ecoregions. Each with its climate now and toward 2050, and its conservation tier.

Saint Helena's territory pairs two of the smallest ecoregions on the books: the St. Helena scrub and woodlands, about 50 square miles, and the Ascension scrub and grasslands, about 36, both classed with the tropical grasslands, savannas and shrublands biome and both Nature Imperiled. These are isolated volcanic islands in the South Atlantic whose native cover is low scrub and grassland rather than forest, shaped by ocean wind and long biological isolation. That isolation is the point for anyone planting here: island floras this small and this imperiled are acutely vulnerable to introduced species, so the most valuable gardening act is growing the islands' own scrub and woodland natives and keeping vigorous exotics contained. Wind tolerance and salt tolerance are the practical filters for anything planted near the coasts.