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Listed in order of decreasing land area, the three main biomes of Africa are subtropical desert, tropical savanna, and tropical forest. The flora in southern Africa has been most studied. The flora of central and northern Africa is less known.
The subtropical desert biome is the driest of the biomes in Africa and includes some of the driest locations on earth. The largest desert region is the Sahara in northern Africa. It extends from near the west coast of Africa to the Arabian Peninsula and is part of the largest desert system in the world, which extends into south central Asia. A smaller desert region in southern Africa includes the Namib Desert, located along the western half of southern Africa, especially near the coast, and the Kalihari Desert, which is primarily inland and east of the Namib Desert.
Where more moisture is available, grasslands predominate, and as rainfall increases, grasslands gradually become tropical savanna. The difference between grassland and a savanna is subjective but is in part determined by tree growth, with more trees characterizing a savanna. The grassland tropical savanna biome forms a broad swath across much of central Africa and dominates much of eastern and southern Africa.
Tropical forests make up a much smaller area of Africa than the other two biomes. They are most abundant in the portions of central Africa not dominated by the grassland tropical savanna biome and are not far from the coast of central West Africa. Scattered tropical forest regions also occur along major river systems of West Africa, from the equator almost to southern Africa.
Subtropical Desert
The subtropical deserts of Africa seem, at first, to be nearly devoid of plants. While this is true for some parts of the Sahara and Namib Deserts that are dominated by sand dunes or bare, rocky outcrops, much of the desert has a noticeable amount of plant cover.
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Tropical Savanna
Tropical savanna ranges from savanna grassland, which is dominated by tall grasses lacking trees or shrubs, to thicket and scrub communities, which are composed primarily of trees and shrubs of a fairly uniform size.
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Tropical Forest
The primary characteristics of African tropical forests are their extremely lush growth, high species diversity, and complex structure.
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