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Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests

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Christmas and Cocos Islands tropical forests

Biome

Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests

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Biogeographic realm

Indomalayan

Forested coast on Christmas Island in the tropical forest ecoregion.

Region photo - David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada / Wikimedia Commons - CC BY 2.0; attribution required.

Christmas and Cocos Islands tropical forests

This small Indomalayan ecoregion covers the forested parts of Christmas Island and North Keeling Island, two remote Australian territories built on submerged seamounts in the Indian Ocean, lying southwest of Java, Indonesia. Dense moist broadleaf rainforest cloaks Christmas Island's plateau, with a tall canopy of Indo-Malayan trees such as Planchonella nitida, Syzygium nervosum, and Inocarpus fagifer above an understorey that includes screw pines (Pandanus) and the endemic Lister's palm (Arenga listeri); North Keeling's forest remains relatively intact while most other Cocos atoll forest was replaced by coconut plantations. The climate is tropical monsoon, with relatively even warm temperatures and a pronounced wet season fed by the northwest monsoon. Isolation has produced a depauperate but highly endemic biota, and the ecoregion's flagship is the Christmas Island red crab (Gecarcoidea natalis), whose vast populations shape the forest floor by clearing leaf litter during their mass migrations. Much of the native forest is safeguarded within Christmas Island National Park and Pulu Keeling National Park. For gardeners, the native flora includes ornamentally familiar tropical genera such as Pandanus and the broad-leaved coastal tree Calophyllum inophyllum.

RESOLVE 227

Indomalayan

52 sq mi

Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests

Landscape type

Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests

Plant region

Indomalayan

Region footprint

52 sq mi

Habitat pressure

Nature Could Reach Half Protected (Dinerstein NNH 2)

Source & care

Plants that can handle this region

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Similar planting regions

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Tropical coastal forest and palm canopy on Havelock Island in the Andaman Islands.

RESOLVE 218 - Indomalayan

Andaman Islands rain forests

The Andaman Islands rain forests cover the Andaman archipelago in the eastern Bay of Bengal, most of which forms part of India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands, with the Coco Islands at the northern end belonging to Myanmar. The vegetation grades from coastal mangroves dominated by the family Rhizophoraceae into inland evergreen and deciduous forests dominated by tall trees of the family Dipterocarpaceae. The climate is tropical and monsoonal, with temperatures generally between 22 and 30 degrees Celsius and annual rainfall of roughly 3,000 to 3,800 millimetres falling mainly in the monsoon season, when cyclonic winds and thunderstorms are common. These islands are a notable storehouse of plant diversity: over 2,500 flowering plant species have been recorded, about 10 percent of them endemic, alongside endemic birds such as the flagship Andaman serpent-eagle, though forest clearing and over-exploitation remain pressing threats. For gardeners drawn to tropical genera, native trees here include Dipterocarpus and the prized Andaman padauk, Pterocarpus dalbergioides.

Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests

RESOLVE 219 - Indomalayan

Borneo lowland rain forests

The Borneo lowland rain forests blanket most of Borneo below about 1,000 meters elevation, spanning Indonesian Kalimantan, the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, and Brunei. These are classic dipterocarp forests: towering members of the family Dipterocarpaceae form the emergent canopy, with characteristic genera including Shorea, Dipterocarpus, Dryobalanops, Hopea, and Vatica. The climate is stable, wet, and tropical, with rainfall spread through the year and high humidity, and little seasonal temperature variation. Biodiversity here ranks among the richest on Earth, with the island holding the world's greatest dipterocarp diversity (over 260 species, more than 150 of them endemic to Borneo) alongside hundreds of bird species and flagship mammals such as the Bornean orangutan and Sunda clouded leopard. For gardeners, the region is the native home of horticulturally familiar plants, including a wealth of orchids and the fruit-bearing genus Artocarpus (breadfruit and jackfruit).

Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests

RESOLVE 220 - Indomalayan

Borneo montane rain forests

The Borneo montane rain forests cloak the central mountainous spine of Borneo above roughly 1,000 metres, spanning the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, the Indonesian region of Kalimantan, and Brunei. Rising above the lowland dipterocarp forests, the slopes shift into oak, beech, and chestnut forests of the Fagaceae and Lauraceae, with conifers growing more abundant at higher elevations and Ericaceae-dominated forest, including many Rhododendron species, near the peaks. This is a classic cloud forest: cooler and moister than the lowlands, it receives heavy rainfall and draws additional moisture directly from low clouds, grading from tropical conditions up to alpine zones on summits such as the 4,095-metre Mount Kinabalu. The ecoregion is a stronghold of endemic life, with the Bornean orangutan as its flagship species, twenty-three bird species found nowhere else, and a striking flora of carnivorous Nepenthes pitcher plants and orchids. Roughly three-quarters of its forest remains relatively intact, with about a quarter under formal protection. For gardeners, it is the wild home of montane Rhododendrons and tropical orchids long prized in cultivation.

Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests

RESOLVE 221 - Indomalayan

Borneo peat swamp forests

The Borneo peat swamp forests stretch across the coastal lowlands of Borneo, spanning Indonesian Kalimantan, the Malaysian state of Sarawak, and the Belait District of Brunei, built up behind brackish mangroves and clustered around the inland lakes of the Mahakam and Kapuas rivers. These forests grow on waterlogged, acidic peat that can exceed twenty meters in depth, where anaerobic conditions slow decomposition; characteristic canopy trees include the valuable hardwood ramin (Gonystylus bancanus), Shorea albida, Dactylocladus stenostachys, and Dacrydium beccarii, alongside more than thirty palm species. The climate is tropical and monsoonal, with year-round waterlogging and seasonal flooding. The proboscis monkey is the ecoregion's flagship species, which also shelters the Bornean orangutan and the prized Asian arowana (Scleropages formosus), yet it is considered critical or endangered, with only about 14 percent protected and much of the peat drained, logged, or burned. For gardeners, the swamps' native understory includes ornamental screw pines of the genus Pandanus, grown elsewhere for their bold, strappy foliage.

Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests

RESOLVE 222 - Indomalayan

Brahmaputra Valley semi-evergreen forests

The Brahmaputra Valley semi-evergreen forests blanket the alluvial floodplain of the upper Brahmaputra River, spanning northeastern India (chiefly Assam, with Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland), southern Bhutan, and adjacent Bangladesh. As the name implies, the natural cover is semi-evergreen forest, mixing an evergreen canopy of Syzygium and Cinnamomum with deciduous trees such as Terminalia, Bombax ceiba, and Tetrameles, an understory including Mesua ferrea, and stands of bamboo. The climate is monsoon-driven, with heavy southwest-monsoon rains from June to September that flood the plain and renew its fertile silt, giving way to a cooler, drier winter. Though much of the original forest has been cleared and only a small fraction is protected, the surviving reserves are globally important: Kaziranga National Park holds the world's largest population of greater one-horned rhinoceros, alongside one of India's largest Asian elephant populations, and the golden langur is among the ecoregion's flagship species. For gardeners, several signature trees here, including the red silk-cotton Bombax ceiba and the fragrant-flowered Mesua ferrea, are long-grown as tropical ornamentals.

Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests

RESOLVE 223 - Indomalayan

Cardamom Mountains rain forests

The Cardamom Mountains rain forests cover the wet evergreen highlands of the Cardamom and Elephant mountains in southwestern Cambodia and southeastern Thailand, extending to Vietnam's Phu Quoc island along the Gulf of Thailand. Forests here grade from lowland and hill evergreen stands into montane forest, where the beech family (Fagaceae) genera Lithocarpus and Castanopsis dominate alongside Lauraceae trees such as Cinnamomum and Litsea, with myrtle-family Syzygium and abundant epiphytic orchids. Rising steeply to over 1,500 meters, the range intercepts moisture-laden monsoon winds and receives very high annual rainfall, exceeding 5,000 millimeters in some valleys. Part of the globally important Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot, it is one of Southeast Asia's most species-rich and endemic-rich forests, sheltering Asian elephants, tigers, clouded leopards, endemic chestnut-headed and Siamese partridges, and the critically endangered Siamese crocodile, with much of the range now within Southern Cardamom National Park. For gardeners, native genera such as the aromatic Cinnamomum and the ornamental Syzygium illustrate the region's warm, perpetually humid, frost-free climate.

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

Australian Indian Ocean Territories

Educator packet

Region packet

Christmas and Cocos Islands tropical forests educator packet

This small Indomalayan ecoregion covers the forested parts of Christmas Island and North Keeling Island, two remote Australian territories built on submerged seamounts in the Indian Ocean, lying southwest of Java, Indonesia. Dense moist broadleaf rainforest cloaks Christmas Island's plateau, with a tall canopy of Indo-Malayan trees such as Planchonella nitida, Syzygium nervosum, and Inocarpus fagifer above an understorey that includes screw pines (Pandanus) and the endemic Lister's palm (Arenga listeri); North Keeling's forest remains relatively intact while most other Cocos atoll forest was replaced by coconut plantations. The climate is tropical monsoon, with relatively even warm temperatures and a pronounced wet season fed by the northwest monsoon. Isolation has produced a depauperate but highly endemic biota, and the ecoregion's flagship is the Christmas Island red crab (Gecarcoidea natalis), whose vast populations shape the forest floor by clearing leaf litter during their mass migrations. Much of the native forest is safeguarded within Christmas Island National Park and Pulu Keeling National Park. For gardeners, the native flora includes ornamentally familiar tropical genera such as Pandanus and the broad-leaved coastal tree Calophyllum inophyllum.

Realm

Indomalayan

Dominant biome

Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests

Approximate area

52 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.). Christmas and Cocos Islands tropical forests (Christmas and Cocos Islands tropical forests). Retrieved 2026, August 20, from https://plotwright.com/regions/resolve-227

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