Zambezian evergreen dry forests

A warm-climate edible structure palette for seasonal dry forests, savannas, and frost-free gardens that need shade, food value, and drought recovery.

A colorful warm-climate screen and hedge palette for frost-light gardens: flowering shrubs, scrambling color, wildlife nectar, and dry-season structure.

The Cape Verde Islands dry forests cover the entire volcanic archipelago of Cabo Verde, a cluster of ten islands and five islets in the eastern Atlantic roughly 500 km off the West African coast near Senegal. Despite the "forest" label, the original vegetation was savanna or steppe at lower elevations with semi-desert plants on the driest ground and arid shrubland or dry woodland higher up, where native trees include the dragon's blood tree (Dracaena caboverdeana), the endemic marmulan (Sideroxylon marginatum), and figs and tamarisk. The climate has a dry season from December to July and a warm, wet season from August to November; rainfall is extremely uneven, with some places receiving around 1,200 mm while others go years with almost none, and taller islands wring out more moisture through orographic rain. Long isolation has produced striking endemism, including dozens of endemic flowering plants such as the endemic genus Tornabenea, many endemic geckos and skinks, and the endangered raso lark, yet only about three percent of the ecoregion is protected and its conservation status is rated critical. For gardeners in similar hot, dry climates, the islands' native flora includes ornamental drought-tolerant genera such as Dracaena and the Cape Verde date palm (Phoenix atlantica).

The Madagascar dry deciduous forests occupy the western side of Madagascar, from the Ampasindava Peninsula in the north to Belo-sur-Tsiribihina and Maromandia in the south, together with the island's northern tip. As the name suggests, these are seasonally deciduous woodlands where most trees drop their leaves during the dry season, growing over coastal plains and limestone (tsingy) plateaus and including several species of baobab (Adansonia), Pachypodium, and the flamboyant tree. The climate is tropical, with a marked dry season from roughly May to October and most rain falling between October and April, annual totals ranging from about 1,000 mm in the south to 1,500 mm in the north. The ecoregion is exceptionally rich in endemic species, harboring endemic baobabs and lemurs such as the golden-crowned sifaka along with the fossa as its flagship animal, yet it is heavily fragmented and ranked Critical/Endangered. For gardeners, it is the native home of ornamental icons including the baobabs, the succulent Pachypodium, and the flamboyant tree (Delonix), all adapted to a long dry season.

The Apure-Villavicencio dry forests stretch along the eastern foot of the Andes' eastern cordillera, spanning the Venezuelan states of Portuguesa, Barinas and Apure and the Colombian departments of Arauca, Casanare and Meta. This is a transitional ecoregion, a patchwork of premontane, gallery and deciduous dry forest grading into savanna where the Andean montane forests give way to the lowland Llanos grasslands. Characteristic woody plants include mesquite (Prosopis juliflora), palo verde (Cercidium praecox), kapok (Ceiba pentandra), yellow mombin (Spondias mombin), and palms such as the moriche (Mauritia flexuosa) and macaúba (Acrocomia aculeata). Its climate is equatorial with a pronounced dry winter (Köppen Aw), with temperatures ranging from about 19 to 33 degrees Celsius. The forests have been severely degraded by deforestation, farming and ranching, leaving poorly protected remnants that the World Wildlife Fund rates as Vulnerable, yet they still shelter the giant anteater, Geoffroy's spider monkey, and the flagship Colombian four-eyed frog. Gardeners may recognize several natives here as ornamentals, including the stately kapok tree and the moriche and macaúba palms.

The Bajío dry forests cover the southwestern Mexican Plateau in west-central Mexico, spanning the states of Jalisco, Guanajuato, and Michoacán across the Lerma River basin and the lake country around Chapala, Cuitzeo, and Pátzcuaro. Set in valleys between roughly 1,000 and 2,000 meters on shallow, rocky, well-drained volcanic and limestone soils, the region was historically dry deciduous forest whose characteristic trees included copal, pochote, palo amarillo, and mauto, with thorn-scrub communities of mesquite and huamúchil. The climate is tropical subhumid, with annual rainfall around 500 to 930 millimeters and a pronounced dry season that can last up to eight months. This is one of Mexico's most developed and densely populated landscapes, and centuries of agriculture and grazing have reduced the forest to small pockets now dominated by thorn scrub and subtropical matorral, leaving the ecoregion classed as critical or endangered with only about 7.5 percent in protected areas. Gardeners working in comparably dry, seasonal climates may recognize natives of this region in drought-adapted, deciduous trees such as mesquite and copal.

The Balsas dry forests occupy the basin of the Balsas River in western and central Mexico, spreading across the states of Michoacan, Guerrero, Morelos, Mexico, Puebla, and Oaxaca. This tropical dry broadleaf ecoregion is a deciduous and thorn forest dominated by Bursera trees, alongside the legume Haematoxylum brasiletto and abundant columnar cacti such as Pachycereus and Cephalocereus. The climate is tropical and subhumid, with seasonal rainfall and a severe dry season that can last up to eight months. The forests are a renowned center of plant endemism and speciation, especially for Bursera, with roughly half of the region's Bursera species found nowhere else, and they shelter the near-endemic Balsas screech-owl, though only about a tenth of the ecoregion lies within protected areas. For drought-tolerant or xeric plantings, the native Bursera (the source of copal incense) and the dyewood Haematoxylum brasiletto are ornamental genera that evolved here.

The Bolivian montane dry forests occupy the eastern flank of the Andes in south-central Bolivia, barely reaching into northwest Argentina, where they form a transitional band between the moister Yungas and high puna grasslands above and the lowland Chaco scrub below. Across rugged terrain of cliffs, steep hillsides, and river valleys, the vegetation is a xeric mosaic of dry slopes studded with scattered shrubs and columnar cacti, seasonal dry forest, and gallery forest along watercourses, with characteristic woody plants including Vachellia caven, hopseed bush (Dodonaea viscosa), Prosopis, and quebracho hardwoods such as Aspidosperma quebracho-blanco and Schinopsis. The climate is strongly seasonal and semi-arid, pairing a pronounced dry winter with summer rains. The World Wildlife Fund rates the ecoregion Critical/Endangered, as only about six percent of its original habitat remains amid fragmentation from urban sprawl, agriculture, overhunting, and fuelwood cutting; it nonetheless shelters numerous endemic birds, among them the Bolivian blackbird, Cochabamba mountain finch, and the endangered red-fronted macaw, with the torrent duck as a flagship species. For gardeners in dry, mild-winter climates, several of its natives, such as the ornamental hopseed bush and the fragrant-flowered Vachellia caven, are familiar landscape plants.