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Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests

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Mascarene forests

Biome

Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests

Biogeographic realm

Afrotropic

Satellite view of forested volcanic cirques, ridges and a dark crater on Reunion Island.

Region photo - NASA Earth Observatory images by Wanmei Liang, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey / Wikimedia Commons - Public domain.

Mascarene forests

The Mascarene forests cover three volcanic islands in the western Indian Ocean east of Madagascar: Mauritius, Réunion, and Rodrigues, which are divided politically between Mauritius and France. Their original vegetation ranged from leeward dry lowland forest and palm-rich woodland up through lowland rainforest to montane evergreen and cloud forest, with heathland on Réunion's highest peaks; characteristic native genera include the ebonies (Diospyros), screw pines (Pandanus), and a distinctive set of endemic palms such as Latania, Hyophorbe, Dictyosperma, and Acanthophoenix. The climate is tropical, with warm-season temperatures near the coast averaging around 27 to 30 degrees Celsius and cooler season temperatures of roughly 22 to 25, while rainfall climbs steeply with elevation and the islands are struck by intense cyclones. The flora is exceptionally rich for its size, with roughly 955 species of which about 695 are endemic, yet these islands have suffered some of the highest human-caused extinction rates on Earth, exemplified by the dodo and the Rodrigues solitaire, and most original forest has been cleared, with Réunion retaining the largest intact area. For gardeners, the region is the natural home of several prized ornamental palms, including the bottle palm and other Hyophorbe, the Latania fan palms, and the princess palm Dictyosperma album.

RESOLVE 20

Afrotropic

1,909 sq mi

Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests

Landscape type

Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests

Plant region

Afrotropic

Region footprint

1,909 sq mi

Habitat pressure

Nature Could Reach Half Protected (Dinerstein NNH 2)

Source & care

Plants that can handle this region

A climate-fit shortlist from Plotwright's catalog. Start with the reliable fits, then use each plant page to check light, water, soil, mature size, and local availability.

Showing 148 of 148 climate-fit plants for this region.

Reliable climate fits

Good bets for now and later

148 plants

These plants fit the region today and stay within range under the mid-century projection. Start here when you want choices with the least climate regret.

Gladiolus dalenii

African gladiolus

A tall, summer-growing cormous perennial from across sub-Saharan Africa, grown for arching spikes of large, hooded, orange-to-red-and-yellow flowers in summer over fans of sword-shaped leaves. This is the widespread wild African gladiolus and a key ancestor of the big garden gladioli. Unlike the winter-growing Cape bulbs, it is a SUMMER-GROWING corm: plant in spring, grow and flower through summer, then it dies back to a dormant corm for winter. It wants full sun, well-drained soil, and summer moisture, and is one of the hardier species gladioli - surviving to about USDA zone 7 with a deep winter mulch or by lifting the corms in cold-winter areas. The corms are toxic and irritant if eaten and have been used in traditional medicine, never as food. In the wild the hooded flowers are pollinated by sunbirds and long-tongued insects.

A bold, clump-forming evergreen perennial from South Africa, grown for big rounded umbels of trumpet-shaped blue (or white) flowers held on tall bare stalks above arching, strap-shaped leaves in mid-to-late summer. It is widely sold as "lily of the Nile," but that is a misnomer - the plant is South African (the Cape provinces and KwaZulu-Natal), not from the Nile. Spectacular and easy in warm climates, this evergreen Agapanthus is frost-tender, so in cold-winter areas it is grown in a container and overwintered under cover. The RHS has given several Agapanthus praecox forms its Award of Garden Merit and rates this evergreen species half-hardy (H3 - needs winter protection).

Perennial

Full sun / Part shade

Spathodea campanulata

African tulip tree

One of the world's most spectacular flowering trees and, in the same breath, one of its most dangerous invaders. Spathodea campanulata is a large, fast-growing tropical tree native to the moist forests of West and Central Africa (GBIF), carrying a dense crown of glossy compound leaves topped by showy, upturned clusters of big, frilly, scarlet-to-orange, tulip-shaped flowers (the boat-shaped buds hold water). It is glorious - and it is a serious invasive. The African tulip tree is listed among the IUCN "100 of the world's worst invasive species"; outside its native range it has overrun wet-tropical forests across the Pacific, Hawaii, the Caribbean, and parts of Asia and Australia, and its flowers can be lethal to native bees. Plant it ONLY where it is genuinely native or where it cannot escape, and first check that it is not prohibited locally - do not plant it in any tropical region where it can naturalise. It is frost-tender (USDA 10a-11), fast, and wants full sun and moisture; in cold-winter climates it is grown only as a tender container specimen kept frost-free. It is an ornamental, not a food plant.

Hippeastrum x hybridum

Amaryllis

Hippeastrum x hybridum is a complex garden hybrid derived from six or more wild Hippeastrum species native to tropical and subtropical South America, developed through intensive breeding since the late 18th century and now the dominant "amaryllis" sold worldwide as a holiday bulb. It produces spectacular trumpet-shaped flowers - 5 to 8 inches across - on stout leafless scapes in red, pink, white, orange, salmon, or bicolour, making it one of the most dramatic winter-flowering houseplants available. The honest catch is toxicity: the entire plant, especially the bulb, contains lycorine and related alkaloids at concentrations that cause vomiting, salivation, tremors, and hypotension in pets and children, so it must be placed out of reach and handled with care.

Perennial

Part sun / Part shade

American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) is a loose, open, arching deciduous shrub of the southeastern and south-central United States, grown almost entirely for one spectacular autumn trick. Through summer it is a quiet green background plant, carrying small clusters of pink-to-lilac flowers tucked into the leaf axils. Then, from late summer into fall, those clusters ripen into tight whorls of vivid magenta-purple berries that wrap right around the stems at every leaf joint, so the arching branches look strung with beads. Songbirds strip them through fall and early winter. It is an easy, fast-growing, forgiving native that asks for little: full sun to part shade, ordinary well-drained soil, and room to arch. Site it where the fall berry show can be seen, because in leaf and flower it is plain, and in fruit it is one of the most distinctive shrubs you can grow.

Shrub

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

Dierama pulcherrimum, angel's fishing rod, is an arching, more-or-less evergreen cormous perennial in the iris family (Iridaceae), endemic to the open summer-rainfall grasslands of the Eastern Cape of South Africa. It forms grassy tufts of long, narrow leaves from which tall, wiry, arching flower stems rise to about 4.9 feet (occasionally to 5.9 feet), each hung with pendulous, bell-shaped rosy-pink to purple flowers in summer - the namesake "fishing rod" silhouette over a pond or in a gravel garden. It is the load-bearing caution to note that this is only a borderline-hardy plant: RHS rates it H4 (hardy to roughly 14 to 23°F / USDA ~8b-9), so in colder zones it needs a sheltered, sunny, sharply drained spot, a winter mulch, or container/glasshouse protection, and it resents disturbance once established. It is not recorded as toxic - though it is grown purely as an ornamental and is not a food plant, so treat it as inedible. It is well-behaved (Least Concern in the wild, no recorded weediness) and suits borders, pond margins, and containers in mild-temperate gardens.

Brugmansia suaveolens

Angel's trumpet

Angel's trumpet (Brugmansia suaveolens) is a large, soft-wooded shrub or small tree hung with enormous pendulous trumpet flowers - up to 12 inches long, white aging to soft blush, and intensely fragrant in the evening and at night. Native to the Atlantic Forest of south-eastern Brazil (POWO, Kew; Flora e Funga do Brasil), it is now classified Extinct in the Wild by the IUCN and survives only in cultivation, which makes a familiar garden plant quietly remarkable. It grows fast and thirsty in warmth (USDA zones 9b-11b) and is frost-tender, so in cold-winter areas it is grown in a large container and overwintered under cover. The load-bearing warning is its toxicity: EVERY PART IS HIGHLY TOXIC, loaded with tropane alkaloids (scopolamine, atropine, hyoscyamine), and poisonings can be severe or fatal - never plant it where children or pets could reach it.

Shrub

Full sun / Part shade

A tender perennial from Madagascar grown across temperate North America as a heat-loving summer annual - a mounding 6-18 inch plant in the dogbane family covered in flat five-lobed phlox-like flowers from June to frost. The species blooms rosy-pink to red with a darker mauve throat, and it shrugs off the hot, humid weather that wilts most bedding plants. Every part of the plant is poisonous: it is the natural source of the vinca alkaloids used in chemotherapy.

Annual

Full sun / Part shade

A fast cool-season annual of the mustard family grown for its peppery, mustard-like salad greens - irregular, pinnately-lobed basal leaves in a low rosette, each with 4 to 10 small lateral lobes and a large terminal lobe (Missouri Botanical Garden). First cultivated by the ancient Greeks and Romans and still widely grown across Europe, it is best grown in the cooler spring and fall months rather than summer heat; leaves are harvested young and tender before they turn strong and bitter. Pale-yellow four-petalled flowers with dark brown or purple veins appear in corymbs if plants are left to bloom.

Vegetable

Full sun / Part shade

A deciduous Eastern-Asian fruit tree with a rounded, spreading crown that the Missouri Botanical Garden lists at 20 to 30 feet tall and wide. Oval leaves emerge yellowish-green, mature to glossy green, and turn gold to red in fall; fragrant but insignificant late-spring flowers give way to showy orange persimmons (3 to 4 inches) that ripen in late fall and may persist on bare branches into winter. Winter hardy to USDA Zones 7-10 and drought tolerant once established.

Asparagus officinalis

Asparagus

A long-lived herbaceous perennial vegetable grown for the tender young spears harvested in April and May before they unfurl. Native to Europe and temperate Asia, it grows from a crown that takes 2-3 years to come into production but then yields for fifteen years or more. Spears left uncut grow into airy 3-4 foot summer ferns; the plants are dioecious, and female plants ripen ornamental red berries in late summer.

A frost-tender broadleaf evergreen tree of the laurel family, native to Mexico and Central America and grown across the tropics and subtropics for its buttery, pear-shaped fruit. Glossy dark-green elliptic leaves 4 to 8 inches long clothe a tree that reaches 30 to 60 feet, hung with greenish-yellow flower panicles that give way to large single-seeded berries. Hardy only in USDA zones 10-12 - north of that it is an indoor curiosity easily sprouted from a pit, but one that rarely fruits.

Tree

Full sun / Part shade

A giant herbaceous perennial from Southeast Asia and the principal wild ancestor of most cultivated dessert bananas. What looks like a trunk is a 'pseudostem' - tightly rolled leaf sheaths - topped by a fountain of huge, paddle-shaped leaves that can run 6 to 10 feet long, giving an instant tropical effect. In frost-free climates (USDA zones 10a-11b) an established clump produces a drooping flower spike and a hanging bunch of edible fruit, then that pseudostem dies and is replaced by a sucker from the base. It is frost-tender: everywhere colder it is grown as a bold container or greenhouse foliage plant that is overwintered indoors and rarely, if ever, fruits.

Perennial

Full sun / Part shade

Gerbera jamesonii, the Barberton daisy (also Transvaal daisy), is a tufted evergreen perennial herb in the daisy family (Asteraceae) native to the summer-rainfall grasslands and rocky woodland of north-eastern South Africa and Eswatini. It forms a basal rosette of lobed leaves from which leafless flowering scapes rise, each topped by a single large daisy-style flowerhead in orange-red, yellow, pink, or white. It is the wild ancestor of the thousands of florist gerbera cultivars and earns its place as a long-blooming focal point in borders and patio containers, attractive to bees and other insects. The load-bearing caution is frost-tenderness: RHS rates it H1C, meaning it survives outdoors only in summer or the very mildest, frost-free spots and must be overwintered under glass elsewhere (roughly USDA 9-11). It is non-toxic, with no reported poisoning hazard to people or pets, making it a safe choice where toxicity is a concern.

The Mediterranean evergreen whose leathery, glossy dark-green leaves are the bay leaf of the kitchen. Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder describes it as a pyramidal, aromatic evergreen tree or large shrub that can reach 60 feet but is usually seen at 10 to 30 feet and is often pruned to 8 feet or less for garden use. Trees are dioecious: small yellowish-green spring flowers on female plants, if pollinated, give way to single-seeded purple-black berries. Winter hardy only to USDA Zone 8, so it is grown as a clipped container houseplant farther north.

Shrub

Full sun / Part shade

Bear's breeches is a bold Mediterranean perennial whose dramatically lobed, glossy leaves inspired the Corinthian column capital of classical architecture. Its wild native range spans the central and eastern Mediterranean - Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, the Balkans, Greece, the Aegean, Anatolia and the Levant, plus NW Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia); it is naturalised (not native) further west into Iberia. In gardens it serves as an architectural statement plant, producing tall white-and-purple flower spikes in summer on established clumps. The honest catch is its root system: fleshy, deep-running tuberous roots regenerate readily from the smallest fragment, making Acanthus mollis genuinely difficult to eradicate once established and a declared invasive in Australia and New Zealand, so site selection is a permanent decision.

Perennial

Full sun / Part shade

The classic German or common-flag iris - the presumed parent of most modern bearded-iris cultivars, probably native to southern Europe and the Mediterranean and naturalized widely. Each stalk carries up to six large, usually fragrant flowers in spring: three erect lilac standards above three purple falls marked with brown veins, white bases, and the signature yellow "beard." It has no bulb, spreading instead by creeping rhizomes that form large clumps, with sword-shaped basal foliage to about two feet.

Hydrangea macrophylla

Bigleaf hydrangea

A woody, deciduous flowering shrub in the Hydrangeaceae, native to Japan, China, Korea, and Southeast Asia and long grown as the classic "hortensia" or French hydrangea. NC State Extension describes a rounded shrub 3 to 6 feet tall and wide with large opposite, simple, toothed leaves (4 to 8 inches long) and big rounded mop-head or flat lacecap flower clusters in late spring and summer in white, pink, blue, or purple. Famously, flower color tracks soil chemistry - acidic soils push the blooms blue and alkaline soils turn them pink. It wants protection from hot afternoon sun and steady moisture, making it a mainstay of shaded foundation plantings and woodland borders.

Shrub

Part sun / Part shade

Swietenia macrophylla

Bigleaf mahogany

The premier true mahogany and one of the most commercially important tropical hardwoods on Earth: a very large neotropical timber tree that reaches roughly 100 to 150 feet with a broad, spreading, rounded crown, pinnately compound leaves, and reddish-brown heartwood prized for fine furniture and instruments. Honesty first: this is a knowledge and conservation entry, not a plant most people can or should grow. It is a frost-tender tropical giant hardy only in USDA zones 10b-12b, native to the neotropics from southern Mexico through Central America into Amazonian South America, with no role as a temperate-garden ornamental. More important than any landscape use is its conservation status - decades of overharvest for that famous mahogany timber have made it conservation-sensitive, and it is listed on CITES Appendix II, meaning international trade is regulated to keep harvest from driving the species toward extinction. Include it for its story and its scale, and source any wood or plant material only through legal, certified, sustainable channels.

A clumping, multi-stemmed evergreen perennial from South Africa, grown for its unmistakable crane-head flowers - a horizontal green-and-pink spathe from which bright orange sepals and vivid blue petals emerge like the crest of an exotic bird. Bold, paddle-shaped blue-green leaves on long stalks form a 3-4 foot fountain of foliage. Winter hardy only in USDA zones 10-12 (frost-free subtropics); everywhere colder it is grown as a houseplant or summered-out container plant. It blooms reliably only from a well-established, somewhat crowded clump, so patience is the key to flowers.

Perennial

Full sun / Part shade

Scadoxus multiflorus, the blood lily (also fireball lily, ball lily, powderpuff lily), is a summer-growing bulbous geophyte in the Amaryllidaceae, native across tropical and southern Africa to the southwestern Arabian Peninsula. Each bulb sends up a leafless stem topped by a dramatic globe-shaped umbel of scarlet flowers with protruding stamens, often before or alongside the foliage. It is a focal-point container and bedding bulb prized for its bold flower head, but it is decidedly tender - RHS rates it H1B (minimum 50 to 59°F), so outside roughly USDA zones 9b–11 it must be grown under glass or as a houseplant and dried off / overwintered frost-free. CRITICAL CAUTION: every part is toxic - Scadoxus contains poisonous alkaloids and has been used as a component of arrow and fishing poisons; the bulbs are ornamental, not edible, and the plant is harmful to people, pets, and grazing animals if ingested. Handle with gloves and keep away from children and animals.

Perennial

Full sun / Part shade

Brassica rapa (Chinensis Group)

Bok choy

A cool-season Asian leaf vegetable grown for its loose, non-heading rosette of dark-green leaves carried on broad, juicy white stalks - the spoon-shaped petioles that distinguish it from heading cabbages. Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder records that the group spans varieties from 3 to 4 inches to 24 inches tall and is edible at every stage, from seedlings to small immature heads to large mature heads and even while flowering. The stems are mild and juicy while the leaves carry a cabbage-like flavor; like other brassicas it tolerates light frosts but bolts in summer heat.

Vegetable

Full sun / Part shade

Boxelder (Acer negundo) is the maple that does not look like a maple. Instead of a single lobed leaf it carries compound leaves of three to five toothed leaflets, close enough to poison ivy that people regularly misidentify young shoots, and it is one of the very few dioecious maples - male and female flowers on separate trees, so only the females carry the familiar paired samaras. It is native across an extraordinary sweep of North America, from Maine to Manitoba and south to Florida, Texas and central Mexico, and it is genuinely at home on riverbanks and floodplains where its speed and flood tolerance are assets. In a garden it is usually a volunteer rather than a choice. It grows fast, breaks in storms, seeds everywhere, and hosts the boxelder bug, which overwinters on house walls in numbers that make it a household nuisance rather than a garden one. The case for it is narrow but real: it establishes on ground where better trees fail, in cold northern climates and on raw disturbed sites, and it is a documented larval host for cecropia and a valued early honey-bee forage.

Broadleaf plantain is the broad-leaved, ground-hugging weed of lawns, paths, driveways, and roadsides across North America - and, honestly, an introduced Eurasian species, not a native. It forms a flat basal rosette of broad, strongly ribbed oval leaves that presses tight to the ground, sending up slender, erect, rat-tail flower spikes through summer. Its tie to human disturbance runs so deep that some Indigenous peoples called it 'white man's footprint,' because it followed colonists wherever soil was trodden bare. Despite the weedy reputation it is genuinely undervalued for habitat: the wind-pollinated spikes are heavy pollen sources, the ripe seed feeds finches and other small birds, and it is a documented larval host for the common buckeye butterfly. The young leaves are edible cooked or in salad, with a long medicinal and poultice history.

Herb

Full sun / Part shade

Starter kits for this region

Generated from catalog plants that already pass this region's climate fit gate, with native matches sorted first when the catalog has enough coverage.

Sunny pollinator border

A sunny, wildlife-forward planting assembled from plants that pass this region fit gate.

Native fit: 0/6

Climate resilient: 6/6

Wildlife links: 12

Host/specialist links: 0

Forage/pollination links: 14

Shelter links: 0

African gladiolus - Climate-resilient African lily - Climate-resilient American beautyberry - Climate-resilient Angel's fishing rod - Climate-resilient Angel's trumpet - Climate-resilient Annual vinca - Climate-resilient

Shade-edge planting

A softer edge kit for woodland margins, porches, and mixed-light garden edges.

Native fit: 0/6

Climate resilient: 6/6

Wildlife links: 10

Host/specialist links: 0

Forage/pollination links: 12

Shelter links: 0

African lily - Climate-resilient Amaryllis - Climate-resilient American beautyberry - Climate-resilient Angel's trumpet - Climate-resilient Annual vinca - Climate-resilient Arugula - Climate-resilient

Resilient shrub layer

A woody structure layer led by plants that fit both current and projected regional conditions.

Native fit: 0/6

Climate resilient: 6/6

Wildlife links: 6

Host/specialist links: 0

Forage/pollination links: 11

Shelter links: 0

African tulip tree - Climate-resilient American beautyberry - Climate-resilient Angel's trumpet - Climate-resilient Asian persimmon - Climate-resilient Avocado - Climate-resilient Bay laurel - Climate-resilient

Similar planting regions

Browse other regions in the same biome. Their plant lists can suggest species and combinations worth comparing.

Layered forested mountains in Bwindi, Uganda, within the Albertine Rift region.

RESOLVE 1 - Afrotropic

Albertine Rift montane forests

The Albertine Rift montane forests cloak the mountains of the western branch of the East African Rift, spanning five countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania, and taking in ranges such as the Virunga and Rwenzori mountains and isolated massifs near Lake Tanganyika. These tropical moist broadleaf forests are rich in the plant families Euphorbiaceae, Rubiaceae, and Meliaceae, with vegetation shifting by elevation from dense lowland forest through moss- and fern-draped montane forest into giant bamboo and high moorland. Although it sits in the heart of tropical Africa, the high terrain gives the region an essentially temperate climate, with annual rainfall generally between 1,200 and 2,200 millimeters and reaching about 3,000 millimeters on the western slopes of the Rwenzori. The ecoregion holds the highest faunal endemism in Africa and is the only home of the mountain gorilla, earning it a place on the Global 200 list of priority conservation areas, with strongholds protected in parks including Virunga, Volcanoes, Bwindi Impenetrable, Nyungwe, and Kahuzi-Biega. Gardeners may recognize the giant montane bamboo that forms a distinct belt across these slopes.

Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests

RESOLVE 2 - Afrotropic

Cameroon Highlands forests

The Cameroon Highlands forests cloak the chain of mountains that runs inland from the Gulf of Guinea and forms much of the border between Cameroon and Nigeria, rising to Mount Oku at 3,011 meters. Above roughly 900 meters the slopes carry a mosaic of submontane and montane forest, montane grassland, and bamboo, with characteristic trees such as Podocarpus latifolius, Prunus africana, Syzygium guineense, Nuxia congesta, and Rapanea (Myrsine) melanophloeos. Although it sits in tropical Africa, the altitude keeps mean maximum temperatures below 20 degrees Celsius, while rainfall ranges from around 4,000 mm a year near the coast to 1,800 mm or less further inland. The forests are exceptionally rich in endemic life, including the endangered Cross River gorilla, the flagship Bamenda apalis, and a large suite of amphibians found nowhere else, though forest cover has declined by more than half since the 1960s through farming, logging, and fire.

Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests

RESOLVE 3 - Afrotropic

Central Congolian lowland forests

The Central Congolian lowland forests occupy the heart of the Congo Basin within the Democratic Republic of the Congo, filling the Cuvette Centrale south of the great arc of the Congo River, which acts as a natural barrier isolating the basin along its northern, eastern, and western edges. The terrain is largely flat lowland, and its vegetation forms a mosaic: seasonally inundated and permanent swamp forests in the north give way to drier semi-evergreen rainforest and patches of grassland in the south, with dominant canopy trees including Gilbertiodendron dewevrei and Staudtia stipitata. The climate is hot and humid with little seasonal variation, mean maximum temperatures near 30 degrees Celsius in the central portion easing toward the southeast margins. This remote region holds the world's largest populations of the bonobo, which is endemic to the DRC, alongside African forest elephants, the strictly endemic Dryas monkey, and the near-endemic Congo peafowl. Much of it lies within Salonga National Park, one of the largest tropical-forest national parks in the world.

Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests

RESOLVE 4 - Afrotropic

Comoros forests

The Comoros forests ecoregion covers the volcanic islands of the Comoros archipelago in the Mozambique Channel between Madagascar and East Africa, including Grande Comore (Ngazidja), Anjouan (Nzwani) and Mohéli (Mwali) of the Union of the Comoros along with Mayotte, a region of France. Its natural cover is tropical moist broadleaf forest, ranging from semi-deciduous and evergreen lowland forest up to montane forest near the peaks, with characteristic canopy trees such as Ocotea comorensis, Khaya, Olea capensis and Prunus africana, and giant heath (Erica comorensis) at the highest elevations. The climate is wet and tropical, with a hot rainy season and a cooler drier season; rainfall is highly uneven, exceeding 5,000 mm a year on some uplands while the driest coasts receive around 1,000 mm. The islands hold roughly 1,000 native plant species, about 30 percent of them endemic, and shelter the Livingstone's fruit bat (Pteropus livingstonii) as a flagship species, though little intact forest remains and the ecoregion is rated critically endangered. For gardeners in warm, humid climates, native ornamentals from here include tree ferns (Alsophila) and the endemic palm Ravenea hildebrandtii.

Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests

RESOLVE 5 - Afrotropic

Congolian coastal forests

The Congolian Coastal Forests (also called the Atlantic Equatorial coastal forests) stretch along Central Africa's Atlantic seaboard from the Sanaga River in Cameroon south through Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, and Cabinda in Angola to the mouth of the Congo River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The dominant cover is coastal evergreen moist broadleaf forest, grading into mixed semi-evergreen forest in the drier south, with coastal grassland and montane forest above 1,000 meters on ranges such as Monte Alen and the Monts de Cristal. The climate is wet tropical with little seasonal variation, rainfall declining from about 2,000 mm a year in the north to 1,200 mm in the south. The ecoregion is a botanical stronghold, holding over 200 strictly endemic plants and three plant families largely confined to tropical Africa, the Huaceae, Medusandraceae, and Scytopetalaceae, while serving as a refuge for the African forest elephant, western lowland gorilla, chimpanzee, and mandrill. Conservation pressure is high, with logging concessions covering nearly the entire region.

Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests

RESOLVE 6 - Afrotropic

Cross-Niger transition forests

The Cross-Niger transition forests occupy southeastern Nigeria between the Niger River to the west and the Cross River to the east, spanning the states of Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Ebonyi, and Imo across low, undulating terrain. Once a mosaic of tropical forest and savanna woodland, the surviving rainforest carries characteristic genera such as Brachystegia, Cola, Ficus, Celtis, and Antiaris, alongside the fan palm Borassus aethiopum, grading into drier mixed forest northward. The climate is wet but becomes drier inland, with rainfall declining from south to north and a dry season from December to February. Biologically the region is transitional between the Upper and Lower Guinean forest blocks yet shows extremely low endemism, with the crested chameleon and Sclater's guenon among its few notable species. It is now one of Africa's most densely populated areas, and intensive farming and logging have left its forests in critical, fragmented condition, with large mammals depleted since the 1940s.

Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests

Where this ecoregion reaches

The countries, US states, and Canadian provinces this ecoregion touches, from a spatial join of its RESOLVE polygon against Natural Earth boundaries.

Countries

France Mauritius

Educator packet

Region packet

Mascarene forests educator packet

Realm

Afrotropic

Dominant biome

Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests

Approximate area

1,909 square miles

States / provinces

Not recorded

Climate descriptor

Not recorded

Classroom prompts

- Which climate and biome facts explain why this region supports its characteristic plants?

- How do native-plant and wildlife-support claims differ from a species-presence claim?

- Which source-backed facts would you cite before using this region in a classroom map activity?

Use the Sources & citations section below for page citation styles and region source links.

Sources & citations

Cite this page

For lesson plans, articles, or regional planting notes that use this Plotwright page. To cite the underlying ecoregion framework or a specific editorial profile, use the source cards below.

Plotwright. (n.d.). Mascarene forests (Mascarene forests). Retrieved 2026, August 20, from https://plotwright.com/regions/resolve-20

Sources for this region

This page cites Plotwright first for the compiled view, then lists the upstream framework, climate, and editorial source pages so readers can cite the original material directly.

RESOLVE 2017 Terrestrial Ecoregions (Dinerstein et al.)

Primary ecoregion framework

One Earth

Wikipedia

Wikimedia Foundation

Open source

Source guide