Namaqualand, South Africa Photograph by Lynn Watson   Southern Africa: Southern Namibia into South Africa Deserts and Xeric Shrublands   39,700 square miles (102,700 square kilometers) -- about the size of Kentucky Critical/Endangered

· A Colorful Tapestry
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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A Colorful Tapestry

The Succulent Karoo ecoregion has been called the world’s most extraordinary desert, a designation that has earned it a place as the world’s only biodiversity "hotspot" that is entirely arid. The number of plant species in the region is unparalleled anywhere else in the world for an area this size, and at least 40 percent of these species are endemic. Most are succulents--plants with thick, fleshy tissues that can store water. One-third of the world's 10,000 species of succulent plants grows in this ecoregion. While the animal diversity does not compare to the spectacular plant diversity, a wide variety of arachnids, beetles, and reptiles can be found among the succulents. And several species of moles live beneath the ground, including some whose range is limited to the ecoregion.

Special Features

Rain in most deserts comes in the form of sudden, severe thunderstorms, with a darkening sky that seem to crack open and spill water across the land in the form of flash floods. The Succulent Karoo, however, experiences different climate patterns from most deserts. Here rainfall is reliable and predictable, falling mostly during the winter. Prolonged droughts are rare, even during the extreme dryness of summer. Fog often settles along the coast and tempers summer heat. In winter, hot mountain or "berg" winds whip across the region, creating some of the hottest days of the year.

	Because rainfall is mostly limited to the winter, plants must quickly germinate, grow, flower, and set seed before the summer. None do this faster than the succulent "eight day" or "miracle" grass, which germinates, flowers, and produces seeds within eight days of rain.

Wild Side

If you were to cross the Succulent Karoo in late winter or in spring, you would find yourself in the middle of a desert painted with shades of magenta, indigo, and yellow. Many of the plants in this region bloom annually, covering the ground with bright splotches of color. If you look closely, you might see some of the insects, birds, and small mammals that help to pollinate these plants. The male malachite sunbird might be seen drinking from the long coral-colored blossoms of an aloe plant. And keep an eye out for scorpions: 50 different species are found here, with 22 of them restricted to this ecoregion. Spending most of its life underground, the Namaqua dune molerat comes above ground only at night after the rains. Also nocturnal, one of the world’s rarest mammals, the riverine rabbit, comes out at night to snack on flowers and leaves along the riverbanks.

Cause for Concern

Less than three percent of the Succulent Karoo ecoregion is conserved, making it one of the least protected and most threatened of Southern Africa’s biomes. As overgrazing, mining, and the illegal harvesting of succulents for horticulture threaten the region, endemic plants are quickly becoming endangered. The overgrazing of livestock transforms the landscape of the region, as inedible shrubs replace endemic plants. For example,the bastard quiver tree, one of the world’s largest aloes, is now considered endangered because severe overgrazing by goats prevents reproduction of the species.

For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report.