The mountains intercept humid southwesterly winds from the Indian Ocean, which form clouds and rain and create a cooler, wetter climate than the surrounding lowlands.

[4] The WWF scheme follows Frank White's 1983 "Vegetation Map of Africa" by including these inland mountains in the coastal forest mosaic ecoregion.

Other researchers, including Jonathan Timberlake of Kew Gardens, maintain that the flora and fauna of Northern Mozambique's interior inselbergs, especially at higher elevations, have greater affinity with the Afromontane Eastern Arc forests.

[5][6] Bayliss et al. concluded that the northern Mozambican inselbergs, together with the Mulanje Massif of southern Malawi, constitute a separate South East Africa Montane Archipelago ecoregion.

The climate is similar in the Mozambican portion, although rainfall is lower (800 mm) in northern Mozambique, which is in the rain shadow of Madagascar.

This region, comprising southeastern Tanzania and northeastern Mozambique, is in the rain shadow of Madagascar, and rainfall is lower (less than 1000 mm annually) than in the coastal forests to the north and south.

Typical dry forest tree species in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado Province include Manilkara sansibarensis, Warneckea sansibarica, Baphia macrocalyx, and Pteleopsis myrtifolia.

Cola clavata is an endangered tree endemic to the coastal forests of Sofala and Zambezia provinces in central Mozambique.

[8] The northernmost portion of the ecoregion around Lindi in Southeastern Tanzania, including coastal forests and the Rondo, Chitoa, and Makonde plateaus, is home to several endemic and limited range species.