Ascension scrub and grasslands

The Angolan mopane woodlands stretch across southwestern Angola and northern Namibia, running along the Owambo Basin and surrounding the salt flats of the Etosha Pan. As the name suggests, the ecoregion is dominated by the mopane tree (Colophospermum mopane), which grows as a single-stemmed tree up to about 10 meters tall or, where conditions are harsher, as a dense shrub, alongside associated Acacia, Combretum, and Commiphora species. The climate is dry, with rainfall concentrated in the summer and peaking in late summer. The woodlands shelter elephants, black and white rhinoceros, lion, and cheetah, as well as the near-endemic black-faced impala, and the wider region is anchored by protected areas including Namibia's Etosha National Park. Mopane here also has a direct human use, as the caterpillars of the mopane emperor moth are gathered locally as food.

The Angolan scarp savanna and woodlands form a long, narrow strip along the coast of Angola, running from the Atlantic shore up the steep west-facing escarpment that climbs roughly 1,000 meters to the country's central plateau. Vegetation shifts dramatically with elevation, grading from dry woodland and wooded grassland-where baobab, Strychnos, and Acacia welwitschii grow-up to humid mist and cloud forests whose canopy includes Khaya anthotheca, Bombax buonopozense, and Spathodea campanulata. The climate is tropical with summer rains; the coastal belt, cooled by the Benguela Current, stays humid but receives relatively little rain, while the escarpment is far wetter. Despite being poorly studied and only partly protected within reserves such as Quiçãma National Park, the region is rich in endemics, including the red-crested turaco and the grey-striped francolin, and is classified as Vulnerable. For gardeners, the showy African tulip tree (Spathodea campanulata), grown as an ornamental in warm climates worldwide, is native to these escarpment forests.

The Angolan wet miombo woodlands blanket most of the central Angolan plateau and extend north into the Democratic Republic of the Congo, sitting largely at elevations between about 1,000 and 1,500 meters. The defining habitat is miombo woodland, a moist deciduous broadleaf savanna dominated by legume trees of the family Fabaceae (subfamily Caesalpinioideae), especially the genera Brachystegia, Julbernardia, and Isoberlinia, with grassland and sandy-soil openings between the stands. The climate is tropical and notably wetter than the surrounding savanna, with rainfall strongly concentrated in the hot summer months from roughly November to March. The ecoregion is the stronghold of the giant sable antelope (Hippotragus niger variani), a critically endangered Angolan endemic protected at Cangandala National Park, and it also harbors a strict-endemic rodent, Vernay's climbing mouse. For gardeners, the signature native flora here are the canopy-forming Brachystegia and Isoberlinia legume trees that give the miombo its character.

The Central Bushveld is a tropical savanna ecoregion that sweeps across northern South Africa (most of Limpopo and part of North West province), the southeast corner of Botswana, and into Zimbabwe. Its vegetation is a mosaic of grassland studded with trees and tall shrubs: vast, often monospecific stands of the winter-deciduous mopane (Colophospermum mopane), northern woodland savanna with Burkea africana and silver clusterleaf, and acacia-dominated savanna on the southern flats featuring Acacia tortilis, A. nilotica, and A. nigrescens, while the Waterberg Mountains add Terminalia sericea and Peltophorum africanum. The climate is seasonal with hot, wet summers and cool, dry winters, modest annual rainfall, and a wide temperature swing, so grasses brown off through the May-to-August dry season. The region supports rich large-mammal life, including elephant, giraffe, and the threatened black rhinoceros and cheetah, alongside Waterberg-area endemics such as Juliana's golden mole and several girdled lizards. For gardeners, several of its hardy, drought-adapted natives, including Peltophorum africanum (weeping wattle) and Terminalia sericea, are grown ornamentally for their form and resilience in dry, summer-rainfall settings.

The Central Zambezian wet miombo woodlands sprawl across south-central Africa, covering roughly 70 percent of central and northern Zambia along with adjacent parts of Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Tanzania, and Mozambique. This is classic miombo country, an open woodland dominated by legume trees of the genera Brachystegia, Julbernardia, and Isoberlinia, with Pterocarpus angolensis, Albizia, and Afzelia quanzensis among the associated species and a ground layer of herbaceous Crotalaria and Indigofera. The climate is tropical and seasonal, set on a flat plateau between about 1,000 and 1,600 meters, with most rain falling in a single November-to-March wet season followed by a long dry season that can last up to seven months. It holds the highest floral richness of the African miombo ecoregions, peaking in Zambia, and supports large mammals such as African elephant, buffalo, and black rhino across major reserves like Kafue National Park. For gardeners, several of its native canopy genera, including Brachystegia and the bloodwood Pterocarpus angolensis, are valued as ornamental and shade trees in warm, frost-light climates.

The Drakensberg Escarpment Savanna and Thicket stretches across the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal Provinces of South Africa, in the Afrotropic realm, threading along the river valleys that drain the Drakensberg foothills. It is a mosaic of savanna and dense, semi-succulent thicket, rich in drought-adapted genera such as Euphorbia, Crassula, Delosperma, and Aloe. The climate is seasonal and relatively dry, with most areas receiving under 800 mm of rain a year, and the region stays virtually frost-free with temperatures roughly between 12 and 26 degrees Celsius. The ecoregion is one of the most cycad-diverse places in Africa, home to endemic and near-endemic species including the Kei cycad and the Albany cycad, yet less than one percent of it is protected and it faces overgrazing, invasive plants such as Lantana camara, and illegal cycad harvesting. For gardeners in warm, low-frost climates, several of its natives, the aloes, Crassula, carpeting Delosperma, and the cycads, are familiar ornamental and succulent garden subjects.