Distribution of vegetation in Africa. False-colour satellite image of Africa, showing variations in ground cover. The north is dominated by the Sahara desert - sandy desert seen as deep yellow and rocky desert as red. Below this, the continent is covered with various types of forest (green), Pale yellow areas, mainly near the coast, are open scrub and semi-desert regions. Two of these, on the south coast of West Africa and on the west coast at centre, are due to extensive destruction of the native tropical rain forests. The desert of the Horn of Africa (centre right) is also seen, a region of recent severe drought and famine. Africa's lakes are shown as dark blue/black.