›

Flooded Grasslands & Savannas

›

Inner Niger Delta flooded savanna

Biome

Flooded Grasslands & Savannas

Biogeographic realm

Afrotropic

Satellite view of the green flooded plain of the Inner Niger Delta against surrounding Sahel sand, Mali.

Region photo - Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC / Wikimedia Commons - Public domain.

Inner Niger Delta flooded savanna

The Inner Niger Delta flooded savanna occupies the vast inland delta of the Niger River in central Mali, a green oasis set within the semi-arid Sahel just south of the Sahara between the towns of Djenné and Tombouctou. It is the largest inland wetland in West Africa and the second largest on the continent after Botswana's Okavango Delta. Its defining rhythm is seasonal flooding: rains falling on Guinea's Fouta Djalon highlands from roughly May to September send a flood surge that reaches the delta around October, expanding the wetland dramatically before it contracts in the hot dry months. Characteristic plants include bourgou (Echinochloa stagnina) and beardgrass (Andropogon gayanus) on the floodplains, flooded forests of Acacia kirkii with some Ziziphus mauritiana, and stands of doum palm (Hyphaene thebaica) and African fan palm (Borassus aethiopum). The delta is a globally important bird wintering ground, drawing over a million waterbirds in wet years including hundreds of thousands of garganey and northern pintail, with the Nile monitor as its flagship species and several Ramsar sites recognizing its value. Gardeners in hot, strongly seasonal climates may know the heat- and flood-tolerant doum and Borassus fan palms as striking architectural ornamentals native to this region.

RESOLVE 71

Afrotropic

17,771 sq mi

Flooded Grasslands & Savannas

Landscape type

Flooded Grasslands & Savannas

Plant region

Afrotropic

Region footprint

17,771 sq mi

Habitat pressure

Half Protected (Dinerstein NNH 1)

Source & care

Plants that can handle this region

A climate-fit shortlist from Plotwright's catalog. Start with the reliable fits, then use each plant page to check light, water, soil, mature size, and local availability.

Showing 84 of 84 climate-fit plants for this region.

Reliable climate fits

Good bets for now and later

17 plants

These plants fit the region today and stay within range under the mid-century projection. Start here when you want choices with the least climate regret.

Bixa orellana

Achiote

Achiote, also sold as annatto or lipstick tree, is a fast-growing evergreen shrub or small tree native from Mexico through Central America to Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and northern Argentina, and planted across the tropics for its seeds. Clusters of pink or white flowers about 2 inches across, like single wild roses, open at the branch tips and are followed by clusters of red to red-brown capsules covered in soft bristles, which split open to show seeds coated in a waxy red-orange layer. That coating is annatto: the coloring and mild seasoning behind achiote paste and sazón, the yellow-orange of many cheeses, butters, and margarines, and the red body paint and lipstick that gave the plant its English name. In a garden it usually stays 6 to 12 feet tall and wide as a specimen or informal hedge, though as a tree it can reach 20 to 30 feet. It is frost-tender and needs a frost-free climate: it is hardy outdoors in USDA zones 10a-12b and grown elsewhere in a large container or conservatory that comes indoors before frost. Outside its native range it has naturalized on many Pacific islands, sparingly so in Hawaii, and in the Galapagos, where the Charles Darwin Foundation rates it potentially invasive.

A frost-tender broadleaf evergreen tree of the laurel family, native to Mexico and Central America and grown across the tropics and subtropics for its buttery, pear-shaped fruit. Glossy dark-green elliptic leaves 4 to 8 inches long clothe a tree that reaches 30 to 60 feet, hung with greenish-yellow flower panicles that give way to large single-seeded berries. Hardy only in USDA zones 10-12 - north of that it is an indoor curiosity easily sprouted from a pit, but one that rarely fruits.

Tree

Full sun / Part shade

Swietenia macrophylla

Bigleaf mahogany

The premier true mahogany and one of the most commercially important tropical hardwoods on Earth: a very large neotropical timber tree that reaches roughly 100 to 150 feet with a broad, spreading, rounded crown, pinnately compound leaves, and reddish-brown heartwood prized for fine furniture and instruments. Honesty first: this is a knowledge and conservation entry, not a plant most people can or should grow. It is a frost-tender tropical giant hardy only in USDA zones 10b-12b, native to the neotropics from southern Mexico through Central America into Amazonian South America, with no role as a temperate-garden ornamental. More important than any landscape use is its conservation status - decades of overharvest for that famous mahogany timber have made it conservation-sensitive, and it is listed on CITES Appendix II, meaning international trade is regulated to keep harvest from driving the species toward extinction. Include it for its story and its scale, and source any wood or plant material only through legal, certified, sustainable channels.

Broadleaf plantain is the broad-leaved, ground-hugging weed of lawns, paths, driveways, and roadsides across North America - and, honestly, an introduced Eurasian species, not a native. It forms a flat basal rosette of broad, strongly ribbed oval leaves that presses tight to the ground, sending up slender, erect, rat-tail flower spikes through summer. Its tie to human disturbance runs so deep that some Indigenous peoples called it 'white man's footprint,' because it followed colonists wherever soil was trodden bare. Despite the weedy reputation it is genuinely undervalued for habitat: the wind-pollinated spikes are heavy pollen sources, the ripe seed feeds finches and other small birds, and it is a documented larval host for the common buckeye butterfly. The young leaves are edible cooked or in salad, with a long medicinal and poultice history.

Herb

Full sun / Part shade

Cacao is the chocolate tree - a small evergreen understory tree of the lowland tropical rainforest, famous for being cauliflorous: its tiny pink-and-white flowers, and then the large ridged football-shaped pods, are borne directly on the trunk and oldest branches rather than out among the leaves. Reaching roughly 15 to 25 feet, it carries glossy oblong leaves that flush bronze when young. Each pod holds 30-40 seeds embedded in sweet white pulp; those seeds become chocolate only after fermenting, drying, and roasting (the cacau of Brazil). It is genuinely demanding - a true tropical, needing deep humid warmth and overhead shade and failing below about 50°F - so outside the wet tropics it is a greenhouse or conservatory plant only. Its flowers are pollinated not by bees but by tiny midges.

A lax, branching nightshade from South America grown for tart-sweet golden berries, each wrapped in a papery, lantern-like husk. Despite the name it is unrelated to true gooseberries: the "Cape" is usually traced to its early cultivation at South Africa's Cape of Good Hope, and it is also known as goldenberry, Peruvian groundcherry, and poha. Taller and longer-lived than the ground cherry, it reaches 3.3 to 4.9 feet with velvety heart-shaped leaves and nodding yellow flowers marked with chocolate-brown centers. It is a reliable perennial only where frost is absent and is grown as a summer annual or a greenhouse plant everywhere colder. Only the fully ripe fruit is eaten - the husk, leaves, stems, flowers, and unripe fruit are poisonous - and it has become invasive in Hawaii and on other Pacific islands.

Schlumbergera x buckleyi

Christmas cactus

The true Christmas cactus - the hybrid Schlumbergera x buckleyi - a long-lived epiphytic holiday cactus grown indoors almost everywhere for its arching, segmented stems and its rose-to-magenta flowers that open in mid-winter, around Christmas. It is worth getting the identity right, because most plants sold and labeled as 'Christmas cactus' are actually the Thanksgiving cactus, Schlumbergera truncata. You can tell the two apart by the edges of the flat stem segments and by when they bloom: the true Christmas cactus has rounded, scalloped segment margins and flowers a few weeks later, in mid-winter, while the Thanksgiving cactus has sharp, claw-like teeth and blooms from late fall into early winter. Unlike a desert cactus, this is a forest epiphyte that grows on tree branches in the Atlantic coastal forest of southeastern Brazil, so it wants bright indirect light, a free-draining mix, sparing water, and - to set its buds - cool nights and short days. A reassuring point that sets it apart from many houseplants: it is non-toxic to cats and dogs. One more field mark clinches it: the true Christmas cactus has rose-pink pollen and flowers that hang almost regularly (radially), where the Thanksgiving cactus has yellow pollen and asymmetric blooms held out nearly horizontally.

A warm-season member of the nightshade family (Solanaceae) - a relative of tomato, potato, and pepper - grown for its showy, glossy edible berries that range from white and green through deep purple to nearly black depending on cultivar. The plant is technically a tender herbaceous perennial but is grown as an annual vegetable across most of North America, where it demands a long, hot, frost-free season to fruit well. Drooping violet star-shaped flowers give way to the familiar pendant fruit; the leaves, flowers, stems, and roots are toxic and only the fruit is eaten.

A tropical evergreen tree from the lowland rainforests of western and central Africa, grown almost everywhere else as a dramatic indoor specimen for its huge, glossy, fiddle- (or violin-) shaped leaves with bold sunken veins. In its native habitat it becomes a 40-foot tree, but as a houseplant or patio container plant it is typically kept to a single upright 6-15 foot trunk topped with a sculptural rosette of leaves. Winter-hardy only in the frost-free subtropics (USDA zones 10-12); everywhere colder it is a houseplant. It is famously fussy: it wants bright, steady light, even moisture, warmth, and - above all - to be left in one spot, dropping leaves in protest at cold drafts, moves, or erratic watering.

The true culinary ginger - a tropical-Asian herbaceous perennial grown for its aromatic, pungent, branched rhizome rather than its rarely-seen bloom. Reed-like pseudostems carry two-ranked lanceolate leaves to 2 to 4 feet, rising from a fleshy underground rhizome that is the kitchen and apothecary spice. Hardy outdoors only in USDA zones 9-12; in cooler regions it is grown as a warm-season annual or container plant and started from a fresh grocery-store rhizome each spring.

A fast, twining annual vine from tropical America grown for the azure-blue trumpets that open at dawn and fade by afternoon, each marked with a white-to-golden-yellow star throat. Heart-shaped leaves clothe stems that climb 8 to 10 feet in a single season on any support. Showy and easy from seed, but every part - especially the seed - is poisonous if eaten, so site it away from where pets and children graze.

A tender perennial from New Guinea grown almost everywhere in North America as a warm-season annual, prized for non-stop bright bloom in part shade - and, unlike common impatiens, in considerably more sun. It mounds 6 to 24 inches tall and 1.5 to 3 feet wide, carrying large, flat, five-petaled flowers in coral, salmon, pink, red, orange, lavender, and white above bold, often bronze-tinted dark foliage. Its real selling point is honest and practical: Impatiens hawkeri is resistant to impatiens downy mildew (Plasmopara obducens), the disease that collapsed plantings of Impatiens walleriana, making it the dependable shade-to-part-sun bedding plant where the common species can no longer be trusted.

Annual

Full sun / Part shade

Good now, not later

Good now, less certain later

67 plants

These plants fit the region as it is today. The projection moves them outside their listed range, so treat them as shorter-horizon or higher-care choices.

Agapanthus praecox

African lily

A bold, clump-forming evergreen perennial from South Africa, grown for big rounded umbels of trumpet-shaped blue (or white) flowers held on tall bare stalks above arching, strap-shaped leaves in mid-to-late summer. It is widely sold as "lily of the Nile," but that is a misnomer - the plant is South African (the Cape provinces and KwaZulu-Natal), not from the Nile. Spectacular and easy in warm climates, this evergreen Agapanthus is frost-tender, so in cold-winter areas it is grown in a container and overwintered under cover. The RHS has given several Agapanthus praecox forms its Award of Garden Merit and rates this evergreen species half-hardy (H3 - needs winter protection).

Perennial

Full sun / Part shade

Spathodea campanulata

African tulip tree

One of the world's most spectacular flowering trees and, in the same breath, one of its most dangerous invaders. Spathodea campanulata is a large, fast-growing tropical tree native to the moist forests of West and Central Africa (GBIF), carrying a dense crown of glossy compound leaves topped by showy, upturned clusters of big, frilly, scarlet-to-orange, tulip-shaped flowers (the boat-shaped buds hold water). It is glorious - and it is a serious invasive. The African tulip tree is listed among the IUCN "100 of the world's worst invasive species"; outside its native range it has overrun wet-tropical forests across the Pacific, Hawaii, the Caribbean, and parts of Asia and Australia, and its flowers can be lethal to native bees. Plant it ONLY where it is genuinely native or where it cannot escape, and first check that it is not prohibited locally - do not plant it in any tropical region where it can naturalise. It is frost-tender (USDA 10a-11), fast, and wants full sun and moisture; in cold-winter climates it is grown only as a tender container specimen kept frost-free. It is an ornamental, not a food plant.

Aji pepper is the South American chili species behind aji amarillo, Lemon Drop, Bishop's crown and Brazil's dedo-de-moça - one of the five domesticated chili peppers, and a different plant from the familiar garden pepper (Capsicum annuum) and the habanero (Capsicum chinense). It is a perennial shrub native from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru through Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, northern Argentina and central and southern Brazil, and where it can live for years it grows taller than most garden peppers, up to about 6.6 feet. Its white to cream flowers are typically marked with green or gold, and its fruits, which usually hang down in cultivated forms, come in an unusually wide range of shapes, from long tapered pods to the crown-shaped Bishop's crown. Heat runs from nearly heatless types to hot ones; aji amarillo is rated around 30,000-50,000 Scoville units. It is frost tender, so outside nearly frost-free climates it is grown as a warm-weather annual.

Hippeastrum x hybridum

Amaryllis

Hippeastrum x hybridum is a complex garden hybrid derived from six or more wild Hippeastrum species native to tropical and subtropical South America, developed through intensive breeding since the late 18th century and now the dominant "amaryllis" sold worldwide as a holiday bulb. It produces spectacular trumpet-shaped flowers - 5 to 8 inches across - on stout leafless scapes in red, pink, white, orange, salmon, or bicolour, making it one of the most dramatic winter-flowering houseplants available. The honest catch is toxicity: the entire plant, especially the bulb, contains lycorine and related alkaloids at concentrations that cause vomiting, salivation, tremors, and hypotension in pets and children, so it must be placed out of reach and handled with care.

Perennial

Part sun / Part shade

Brugmansia suaveolens

Angel's trumpet

Angel's trumpet (Brugmansia suaveolens) is a large, soft-wooded shrub or small tree hung with enormous pendulous trumpet flowers - up to 12 inches long, white aging to soft blush, and intensely fragrant in the evening and at night. Native to the Atlantic Forest of south-eastern Brazil (POWO, Kew; Flora e Funga do Brasil), it is now classified Extinct in the Wild by the IUCN and survives only in cultivation, which makes a familiar garden plant quietly remarkable. It grows fast and thirsty in warmth (USDA zones 9b-11b) and is frost-tender, so in cold-winter areas it is grown in a large container and overwintered under cover. The load-bearing warning is its toxicity: EVERY PART IS HIGHLY TOXIC, loaded with tropane alkaloids (scopolamine, atropine, hyoscyamine), and poisonings can be severe or fatal - never plant it where children or pets could reach it.

Shrub

Full sun / Part shade

A tender perennial from Madagascar grown across temperate North America as a heat-loving summer annual - a mounding 6-18 inch plant in the dogbane family covered in flat five-lobed phlox-like flowers from June to frost. The species blooms rosy-pink to red with a darker mauve throat, and it shrugs off the hot, humid weather that wilts most bedding plants. Every part of the plant is poisonous: it is the natural source of the vinca alkaloids used in chemotherapy.

Annual

Full sun / Part shade

A giant herbaceous perennial from Southeast Asia and the principal wild ancestor of most cultivated dessert bananas. What looks like a trunk is a 'pseudostem' - tightly rolled leaf sheaths - topped by a fountain of huge, paddle-shaped leaves that can run 6 to 10 feet long, giving an instant tropical effect. In frost-free climates (USDA zones 10a-11b) an established clump produces a drooping flower spike and a hanging bunch of edible fruit, then that pseudostem dies and is replaced by a sucker from the base. It is frost-tender: everywhere colder it is grown as a bold container or greenhouse foliage plant that is overwintered indoors and rarely, if ever, fruits.

Perennial

Full sun / Part shade

Gerbera jamesonii, the Barberton daisy (also Transvaal daisy), is a tufted evergreen perennial herb in the daisy family (Asteraceae) native to the summer-rainfall grasslands and rocky woodland of north-eastern South Africa and Eswatini. It forms a basal rosette of lobed leaves from which leafless flowering scapes rise, each topped by a single large daisy-style flowerhead in orange-red, yellow, pink, or white. It is the wild ancestor of the thousands of florist gerbera cultivars and earns its place as a long-blooming focal point in borders and patio containers, attractive to bees and other insects. The load-bearing caution is frost-tenderness: RHS rates it H1C, meaning it survives outdoors only in summer or the very mildest, frost-free spots and must be overwintered under glass elsewhere (roughly USDA 9-11). It is non-toxic, with no reported poisoning hazard to people or pets, making it a safe choice where toxicity is a concern.

Scadoxus multiflorus, the blood lily (also fireball lily, ball lily, powderpuff lily), is a summer-growing bulbous geophyte in the Amaryllidaceae, native across tropical and southern Africa to the southwestern Arabian Peninsula. Each bulb sends up a leafless stem topped by a dramatic globe-shaped umbel of scarlet flowers with protruding stamens, often before or alongside the foliage. It is a focal-point container and bedding bulb prized for its bold flower head, but it is decidedly tender - RHS rates it H1B (minimum 50 to 59°F), so outside roughly USDA zones 9b–11 it must be grown under glass or as a houseplant and dried off / overwintered frost-free. CRITICAL CAUTION: every part is toxic - Scadoxus contains poisonous alkaloids and has been used as a component of arrow and fishing poisons; the bulbs are ornamental, not edible, and the plant is harmful to people, pets, and grazing animals if ingested. Handle with gloves and keep away from children and animals.

Perennial

Full sun / Part shade

Brazilian jasmine is an evergreen, woody twining vine endemic to the state of Rio de Janeiro in southeastern Brazil, and one of the species from which many of the garden mandevilla hybrids sold for patios, porches, and hanging baskets have been developed. Despite the name it is not a true jasmine: it belongs to the dogbane family (Apocynaceae), and its flowers are funnel-shaped trumpets 2 to 3 inches across, pink-red in the species and red, pink, white, or cream in its many cultivars, carried over a long season from spring into autumn. Its leaves are thick, leathery, and glossy dark green, to about 2 inches long, and it builds large starchy tuberous roots that help it ride out dry spells. It was first described as Dipladenia sanderi, and its garden forms are still generally sold as 'Dipladenia'. It is frost-tender: a frost kills it, so it lives outdoors year-round only in USDA zones 10a-11b, the range published for mandevillas, and is grown as a summer annual or an overwintered container plant everywhere colder. Its milky sap irritates skin and may be toxic if swallowed.

Cordyline australis is a dramatic, palm-like evergreen tree native to New Zealand, where it ranges from North Cape to the southern South Island. In warm-temperate gardens (USDA zones 8-11) it makes an unmistakable structural focal point with its stout trunk, arching sword-leaf crown, and spectacular fragrant flower panicles in late spring. The honest catch is its scale and tenderness: it can exceed 33 feet in mild climates, its fibrous roots are expansive and difficult to remove, a single hard frost below about 23°F can kill or badly damage an established specimen, and the saponin-bearing foliage is toxic to cats and dogs - making it a gamble outside sheltered coastal or urban sites in colder zone-8 gardens.

Tree

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

Cape honeysuckle (Tecomaria capensis, Bignoniaceae) is a vigorous, evergreen scrambling shrub from southern and south-central Africa, valued for tubular orange-to-apricot flowers borne erratically across much of the year. It reaches about 6.6 to 9.8 feet tall and wide as a free-standing shrub, or can be trained much taller on a trellis or wall, and is widely used for informal hedging and as a hot-color border or container plant. It is frost-tender (RHS H1C; roughly USDA 9b-11) - in cooler climates it is grown under glass or as a summer container plant and overwintered indoors. In frost-free, mild climates it can become weedy: it has naturalised and is treated as invasive in parts of Australia and on islands such as the Azores, so site it where suckering and self-layering can be managed. It is not a recognised edible and is not flagged as notably toxic, though several plant parts feature in traditional southern-African medicine; treat it as ornamental rather than for consumption. Note the accepted binomial here is Tecomaria capensis (POWO/GBIF); the widely-seen Tecoma capensis is a synonym.

Planting collections

Finished planting recipes where every member can handle this region's climate range. The fit badge uses the collection's most sensitive plant, so a resilient collection is a safer starting point than any single standout.

Pineapple (Ananas comosus) - whole-plant habit growing in the ground, the dense ground-level rosette of long, stiff, channeled spiny-margined leaves bearing a single fruit on a short central stalk.

Papaya (Carica papaya) - large, deeply palmately-lobed leaves clustered at the top of the stem, single unbranched, soft fibrous trunk (palm-like habit), cluster of green oval fruits borne directly on the upper trunk below the leaf crown.

Guava (Psidium guajava) - elliptic-oblong leaves with strongly impressed, prominent pinnate venation typical of guava, opposite, decussate leaf arrangement on a slender reddish-tinged young stem, upright woody seedling/sapling habit with new growth flushing at the shoot tip.

Currently suited · 6 plants

Tropical edible canopy + patio

A frost-free edible palette for humid subtropical and tropical gardens: fruiting canopy, understory crops, edible roots, and container-friendly patio plants.

Starter kits for this region

Generated from catalog plants that already pass this region's climate fit gate, with native matches sorted first when the catalog has enough coverage.

Sunny pollinator border

A sunny, wildlife-forward planting assembled from plants that pass this region fit gate.

Native fit: 0/6

Climate resilient: 5/6

Wildlife links: 9

Host/specialist links: 1

Forage/pollination links: 10

Shelter links: 0

Avocado - Climate-resilient Broadleaf plantain - Climate-resilient Eggplant - Climate-resilient Morning glory - Climate-resilient New Guinea impatiens - Climate-resilient African lily - Currently suited

Shade-edge planting

A softer edge kit for woodland margins, porches, and mixed-light garden edges.

Native fit: 0/6

Climate resilient: 6/6

Wildlife links: 4

Host/specialist links: 1

Forage/pollination links: 3

Shelter links: 0

Achiote - Climate-resilient Avocado - Climate-resilient Broadleaf plantain - Climate-resilient Cacao - Climate-resilient Christmas cactus - Climate-resilient Fiddle-leaf fig - Climate-resilient

Resilient shrub layer

A woody structure layer led by plants that fit both current and projected regional conditions.

Native fit: 0/6

Climate resilient: 6/6

Wildlife links: 1

Host/specialist links: 0

Forage/pollination links: 1

Shelter links: 0

Achiote - Climate-resilient Avocado - Climate-resilient Bigleaf mahogany - Climate-resilient Cacao - Climate-resilient Fiddle-leaf fig - Climate-resilient Rubber plant - Climate-resilient

Similar planting regions

Browse other regions in the same biome. Their plant lists can suggest species and combinations worth comparing.

Satellite view of red brine streaks and white salt crusts on Lake Natron, Arusha Region, Tanzania.

RESOLVE 69 - Afrotropic

East African halophytics

The East African halophytics ecoregion covers the saline soda lakes of the eastern arm of the Great Rift Valley, spanning northern Tanzania and southern Kenya, and takes in Lake Natron, Lake Eyasi, and Lake Manyara on the Tanzanian side along with Lake Magadi in Kenya. Resting on volcanic lava and ash that weather into deep, sodium-rich soils, the lakes are largely devoid of rooted (macrophytic) vegetation; instead they teem with blue-green algae, chiefly Spirulina, while only a few salt-loving halophytic plants persist on the alkaline soils fringing the water. The climate is semi-arid, with erratic rainfall concentrated between December and May, a long dry season, and daytime temperatures that frequently climb above 40 degrees Celsius alongside high evaporation. Despite waters so hot and alkaline that most life is excluded, the ecoregion is globally important for the lesser flamingo, its flagship species, with Lake Natron serving as the single most important breeding site for the bird, and it also shelters endemic salt-tolerant alkaline tilapia in its hot-spring margins.

Flooded Grasslands & Savannas

RESOLVE 70 - Afrotropic

Etosha Pan halophytics

The Etosha Pan halophytics ecoregion lies entirely within Etosha National Park in northern Namibia, encompassing a vast saline depression of roughly 4,850 square kilometers that forms part of the Cuvelai-Etosha Basin and is the remnant of a large inland Pliocene lake. This is the largest pan system in Namibia, mostly dry cracked clay that floods with a thin, heavily salted sheet of water after good rains. Vegetation is sparse and salt-tolerant: the pan surface is colonized by grasses such as Sporobolus spicatus that flush quickly after rain, while dense mopane woodland frames the surrounding margins. The climate is harsh and strongly seasonal, with a mean annual rainfall near 430 millimeters falling mostly in late summer, three distinct seasons (hot and wet, cool and dry, hot and dry), and temperatures swinging from below freezing in winter to over 45 degrees Celsius in summer. The pan is a Ramsar wetland of international importance and a crucial breeding ground, drawing up to 1.1 million flamingos in flood years alongside its flagship great white pelican, and the park supports one of the largest black rhino populations in the world.

Flooded Grasslands & Savannas

RESOLVE 72 - Afrotropic

Lake Chad flooded savanna

The Lake Chad flooded savanna is an Afrotropic flooded-grassland ecoregion centered on the basin of Lake Chad, straddling the borders of Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria. It is a mosaic of open water, papyrus and reed beds, seasonally flooded grasslands, and Acacia woodland: the southern lake supports Cyperus papyrus, Phragmites mauritianus, and Vossia cuspidata, the saltier north favors Phragmites australis and Typha, and Acacia seyal is the predominant tree of the drier margins. The climate is tropical and dry, with around 320 mm of rainfall a year concentrated in a June-to-October wet season, so the lake depends heavily on the Chari and Logone Rivers rather than on local rain. It is a critical refuge for waterbirds, hosting many wetland species and large numbers of Palearctic migrants such as ruff, with the secretary bird serving as its flagship species, though the lake has shrunk dramatically in recent decades under pressure from drought, water diversion, and agriculture. For gardeners, the region's native flora includes ornamental wetland and dryland genera grown elsewhere, notably papyrus (Cyperus) and Acacia.

Flooded Grasslands & Savannas

RESOLVE 73 - Afrotropic

Makgadikgadi halophytics

The Makgadikgadi Halophytics ecoregion occupies the vast Makgadikgadi Pan complex of northeastern Botswana, a salt-encrusted basin southeast of the Okavango Delta and ringed by the Kalahari that holds two major pans, Ntwetwe and Sua, along with many smaller ones. It is the remnant of an enormous ancient lake that dried up tens of thousands of years ago, leaving a flat expanse of soda-saturated clay fed seasonally by the Boteti and Nata rivers. The pan floors are almost devoid of higher plants apart from a thin film of blue-green algae, while their wetter fringes grade into salt marshes and grasslands where salt-tolerant grasses take hold, and the surrounding savanna carries scattered baobabs. The climate is semi-arid, with rain falling mainly as summer thunderstorms and droughts recurring in roughly seven-year cycles. Sua Pan is the most important breeding site in Africa for the greater flamingo, the ecoregion's flagship species, and supports southern Africa's largest breeding population of lesser flamingo, with much of the region protected within Makgadikgadi and Nxai Pan National Park.

Flooded Grasslands & Savannas

RESOLVE 74 - Afrotropic

Sudd flooded grasslands

The Sudd flooded grasslands form one of Africa's largest wetlands, spreading across the White Nile floodplain in South Sudan with a marginal reach into Ethiopia. Vegetation is arranged in zones tied to flood depth: dense stands of papyrus (Cyperus papyrus), reeds such as Phragmites, and cattail (Typha) dominate the permanently wet channels, while floating-rooted hippo grass (Vossia cuspidata) and seasonally flooded swards of wild rice and Echinochloa grasses occupy the shallower margins. The climate is hot and strongly seasonal, with rains falling roughly April to September under the migrating Intertropical Convergence Zone and the wetter south receiving more than the drier north. The Sudd is a biodiversity stronghold, supporting over 400 bird species and the world's largest population of the shoebill, and serving as the stage for one of Earth's greatest mammal migrations as white-eared kob, tiang, and Mongalla gazelle move across the plains. Gardeners may recognize papyrus, native here, as a familiar ornamental water-garden sedge.

Flooded Grasslands & Savannas

RESOLVE 75 - Afrotropic

Zambezian coastal flooded savanna

The Zambezian coastal flooded savanna is restricted to the coastal lowlands of Mozambique, comprising the floodplain deltas of the Zambezi, Pungwe, Buzi, and Save rivers, with the vast Zambezi delta stretching nearly 200 km along the Indian Ocean coast and reaching up to 120 km inland. It is a mosaic of seasonally flooded grasslands and savanna interwoven with mixed freshwater swamp forests, whose plant communities shift with soil type and flooding duration: reed swamps of Phragmites and Typha, grasses such as Hyparrhenia, Ischaemum, and Setaria, and scattered trees and palms including Parinari, Uapaca, Syzygium, and Borassus. Rainfall is strongly seasonal, with most of the roughly 800 to 1,400 mm falling between October and March, and the river-driven flood pulse governs which habitats develop. The wetlands hold the highest concentration of waterbirds in Mozambique and are a stronghold for the wattled crane, the ecoregion's flagship species, with portions protected within the Marromeu National Reserve and Gorongosa National Park. For gardeners, several striking palms are native here, among them the wild date palm (Phoenix reclinata) and the fan palm Hyphaene coriacea.

Flooded Grasslands & Savannas

Where this ecoregion reaches

The countries, US states, and Canadian provinces this ecoregion touches, from a spatial join of its RESOLVE polygon against Natural Earth boundaries.

Countries

Mali

Educator packet

Region packet

Inner Niger Delta flooded savanna educator packet

Realm

Afrotropic

Dominant biome

Flooded Grasslands & Savannas

Approximate area

17,771 square miles

States / provinces

Not recorded

Climate descriptor

Not recorded

Classroom prompts

- Which climate and biome facts explain why this region supports its characteristic plants?

- How do native-plant and wildlife-support claims differ from a species-presence claim?

- Which source-backed facts would you cite before using this region in a classroom map activity?

Use the Sources & citations section below for page citation styles and region source links.

Sources & citations

Cite this page

For lesson plans, articles, or regional planting notes that use this Plotwright page. To cite the underlying ecoregion framework or a specific editorial profile, use the source cards below.

Plotwright. (n.d.). Inner Niger Delta flooded savanna (Inner Niger Delta flooded savanna). Retrieved 2026, October 9, from https://plotwright.com/regions/resolve-71

Sources for this region

This page cites Plotwright first for the compiled view, then lists the upstream framework, climate, and editorial source pages so readers can cite the original material directly.

RESOLVE 2017 Terrestrial Ecoregions (Dinerstein et al.)

Primary ecoregion framework

One Earth

Wikipedia

Wikimedia Foundation

Open source

Source guide