Central Andean dry puna

A part-shade planting with shrub structure and low foliage contrast.

A pollinator-supporting palette of eastern North American natives with broad hardiness ranges and wide native distributions. Built for gardeners who want a planting that can handle warming zones without giving up wildlife value.

A continuous-bloom native pollinator strip for eastern North America. Covers spring through frost with host + nectar plants spanning monarchs, native bees, hummingbirds, and specialist Lepidoptera. Little bluestem provides the matrix grass + Hesperiidae host.

A part-shade / bright-shade planting for morning sun or dappled light - eastern North American woodland-edge natives with spring bloom, season-long foliage, and a fern + shrub structure.

A full-shade woodland-floor community for deep shade beneath a closed canopy: an understory shrub, spreading groundcovers, spring ephemerals, and a large fern - eastern North American natives that expect low light and leaf-litter soil.

A durable sunny border with summer bloom, seedheads, and upright winter texture.

The Central Andean puna is a high-elevation montane grassland and shrubland ecoregion of the southern Andes, stretching from southern Peru through Bolivia into northern Chile and Argentina, generally between about 3,200 and 6,600 meters above sea level. Its landscape of open meadows, plateaus, high lakes, and snow-capped peaks is dominated by tussock or bunchgrass grasslands built from genera such as Calamagrostis, Agrostis, and Festuca, dotted with herbs, moss, and lichen, and accented by Polylepis (queñoa) woodland, Azorella cushion plants, and the giant bromeliad Puya raimondii. The climate is cold and semi-arid, with annual temperatures ranging from below freezing to about 15 degrees Celsius and yearly rainfall of roughly 250 to 500 millimeters. The region remains an important refuge for hardy Andean wildlife, including the vicuna, guanaco, chinchilla, and its flagship bird, Darwin's rhea, though habitat is increasingly pressured by grazing, burning, mining, and agriculture. For gardeners drawn to rugged high-altitude flora, the puna is the native home of the dramatic Puya raimondii, prized for producing one of the tallest flower spikes in the plant world.

The Central Andean wet puna stretches across the high Andes of Peru and eastern Bolivia, blanketing plateaus, glacial valleys, and lake basins generally above 3,500 metres in elevation. Its dominant cover is high-elevation montane grassland woven from bunchgrass genera such as Festuca, Calamagrostis, Stipa, Agrostis, and Paspalum, interspersed with gnarled Polylepis woodlands, the giant rosette bromeliad Puya raimondii, and waterlogged cushion-plant bogs (bofedales) of species like Distichia muscoides. The climate is cold and seasonally wet, with nightly freezes year-round in the upper zones and a rainy season that lengthens from roughly two months in the south to about eight months in the north. All four South American camelids occur here (vicuna, llama, guanaco, and alpaca) alongside puma and Andean fox, and the ecoregion harbors many endemic birds, including the critically endangered royal cinclodes, which depends on the dwindling Polylepis forests now threatened by grazing, burning, and mining. For high, cold gardens the puna offers hardy native ornamentals, from the dramatic Puya to cool-season tussock grasses such as Festuca, Calamagrostis, and Stipa.

The Cordillera Central páramo is a high-Andean ecoregion that spans the treeless heights of northern Peru (the Piura and Cajamarca regions) and southernmost Ecuador, lying near the Marañón Valley in three distinct oblong patches. Above the treeline at roughly 3,200 metres and reaching toward the permanent snowline near 4,500 metres, it is covered in tussock bunchgrasses such as Calamagrostis and Agrostis along with cushion plants, low shrubs, and sedges, often over a mat of lichens and moss; characteristic woody genera include Hypericum, Polylepis, and Escallonia. The climate is cold, wet, and very cloudy, with high rainfall and temperatures that can drop below freezing. Because these isolated sky-island habitats foster high endemism, the ecoregion shelters notable wildlife including the endangered mountain tapir, its flagship species, along with the spectacled bear and northern pudú. For gardeners, the region is also the native home of quinine (Cinchona officinalis), the tree historically prized for its bark.

The Cordillera de Mérida páramo is a high-altitude grassland and shrubland ecoregion in western Venezuela, occupying isolated patches above the treeline within the Cordillera de Mérida massif, south of Lake Maracaibo. Its dry páramo is defined by the spectacular giant rosettes of Espeletia (frailejones), alongside tussock grasses, dwarf bamboo, cushion plants, and lichens, with Polylepis woodlands forming an important transition at lower elevations. The climate is alpine tundra, with no month averaging above 10 degrees Celsius, a pronounced dry season, and regular snowfall on the highest peaks. Long isolation has produced high local endemism, especially on the more remote summits, while the endangered spectacled bear and mountain tapir range through its lower portions; the World Wildlife Fund rates the ecoregion as relatively stable and intact, with protected areas including Sierra Nevada and Sierra La Culata National Parks. For gardeners, it is the native home of cold-hardy high-mountain genera such as Espeletia and the Andean rose-relative Polylepis.

The High Monte is a montane shrubland ecoregion confined to Argentina, running along the eastern slopes of the Andes from the vicinity of Salta south to Mendoza, set between the Sierras Pampeanas and the main Andean ridge and bounded by the arid Puna to the north and the Chaco and Espinal woodlands to the east. Its characteristic cover is evergreen scrubland dominated by Larrea shrubs (the jarillas, or creosote bushes), with open algarrobo woodland of Prosopis alba and Prosopis nigra where groundwater is reachable, alongside genera such as Bulnesia and Bougainvillea and an abundance of cacti and bromeliads in the north. The climate is temperate and arid to semi-arid, with sparse rainfall that falls mainly in the austral summer when the South American monsoon pushes moist air across the region. Sitting in the Andean rain shadow, it shelters notable endemics and a flagship southern mountain cavy, and its burrowing parrots act as important dispersers of algarrobo seeds. For gardeners in dry, hot-summer climates, the ecoregion is the native home of drought-hardy ornamental and shade genera including Prosopis, Larrea, and Bougainvillea.

The Northern Andean páramo is a band of high-altitude grasslands that lie above the tree line and below the snow line in the equatorial Andes of Colombia and Ecuador, generally between about 3,000 and 5,000 meters. Its vegetation is a distinctive mix of tussock or bunch grasses such as Calamagrostis and Festuca, giant rosette plants of the genus Espeletia (the frailejones), low cushion plants, and shrubs of the heath family (Ericaceae). The climate is cold, humid, and cloud-bound, with moisture arriving as rain, fog, and low cloud; annual rainfall ranges roughly from 500 to 3,000 millimeters, and temperatures can fall below freezing at night yet climb toward 30°C by day. Plant endemism is very high, and the páramo serves as habitat for threatened animals including the mountain tapir and the spectacled bear, though burning, overgrazing, and road building remain ongoing pressures. For gardeners, the showy frailejón rosettes (Espeletia) and the many native heaths reflect the cool, perpetually moist conditions this ecoregion demands.