Because of the steepness in this last zone, humus is much rarer, the granite rocks more present on the surface and the local vegetation shorter. The accumulated heat creates difficult conditions for non-adapted plants particularly during summer.

This zone has thus been divided into islets in order to satisfy the demands for comply with plant humidity and heat conditions: a hot, sunny and dry place or a warm, shaded and dry one or hot, shaded and watered, etc. This is in order to place the plants in the closest conditions they can find in their native environment.

The vegetation of southern Africa is extremely rich and there could be no question of trying to collect plants simply to amass them but rather better to give visitors a very modest indication, of the splendour of this vegetation adapted to very specific climatic conditions. In addition the Mediterranean climate, with its sometimes intense rains in winter, as in this year 2010, forbids any attempt to test plants adapted to winter drought without some protection; however, there could be no question of building temporary shelters for plants in this garden.

Emphasis was placed on the plants of the Cape region, and more generally, of South Africa, with, in addition, some plants from Madagascar, Reunion Island, Namibia, etc.

The better represented genera are Aloe, Euphorbia, Encepharlartos, Stangeria, Pelargonium, but families like Aizoaceae with Mesembryanthemum and other succulent plants, Liliaceae and Amaryllidaceae with a good number of geophytic plants, are well represented too.

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