Madagascar Spiny Thickets

The Madagascar spiny thickets, also called the Madagascar spiny forests, are an ecoregion in the southwest of Madagascar. The vegetation grows on poor substrates under low and erratic winter rainfall, and many of its plants show extreme adaptations to drought. Spiny, woody plants of the endemic subfamily Didiereoideae, which are only distantly related to the cacti, form a conspicuous part of the cover, and the remainder is dominated by the Burseraceae, Euphorbiaceae, Anacardiaceae and Fabaceae. The ecoregion has the highest level of plant endemism in Madagascar, with 48 percent of genera and 95 percent of species found nowhere else, and it is listed among the Global 200 priority ecoregions. Animals include the spider tortoise, the radiated tortoise, Verreaux's sifaka and Grandidier's mongoose. About 8.31 percent of the ecoregion lies within protected areas, while burning for farmland, charcoal and firewood harvest and logging put the rest under pressure.