Country

Vatican City: one ecoregion. Each with its climate now and toward 2050, and its conservation tier.

Vatican City, the world's smallest state, lies entirely within the Italian sclerophyllous and semi-deciduous forests, the Mediterranean forest, woodland and scrub ecoregion that spans roughly 39,000 square miles of the Italian peninsula and is ranked Nature Imperiled. The ecoregion's character is the familiar Mediterranean one: hot, dry summers, mild wet winters, and a natural cover mixing tough-leaved evergreen sclerophylls with semi-deciduous broadleaf trees. Within the city's walls, gardening is entirely cultivated ground, but the same logic applies as anywhere in this ecoregion: evergreen oaks, cypresses and pines, and drought-adapted shrubs and perennials that rest through the summer thrive, while moisture-hungry plants need irrigation to persist. Plantings drawn from the ecoregion's own imperiled woodland flora are the most climate-honest choice.