Yunnan Plateau subtropical evergreen forests

A part-shade planting with shrub structure and low foliage contrast.

A part-shade / bright-shade planting for morning sun or dappled light - eastern North American woodland-edge natives with spring bloom, season-long foliage, and a fern + shrub structure.

The Guizhou Plateau broadleaf and mixed forests cover the Yungui Plateau of southern China, spreading across most of Guizhou province and into Yunnan, Sichuan, Chongqing, Hubei, and Hunan at elevations of roughly 1,000 to 1,400 meters. This is classic South China karst country, where Paleozoic limestone has dissolved into block-shaped hills, steep-walled basins, caves, and subterranean rivers. The natural cover is subtropical evergreen broadleaf and mixed forest, with Chinese red pine in the north and Yunnan pine in the south alongside broadleaf genera such as Quercus, Rhododendron, Erythrina, Ficus, Sterculia, and Helicia. Although rainfall is high, the porous karst soils drain quickly and hold little water, so plants here contend with drought stress despite the wet climate. The ecoregion shelters the endemic Guizhou snub-nosed monkey and protected plants including the dove tree (Davidia involucrata), though much of the original forest has been converted and now survives mainly in reserves such as Wulingyuan and Zhangjiajie. For gardeners, this karst flora is a source of well-known ornamentals, from rhododendrons and camellias to the prized dove tree.

The Admiralty Islands lowland rain forests cover the volcanic Admiralty Islands of Papua New Guinea, which make up Manus Province in the country's Islands Region, an isolated archipelago lying roughly 280 kilometers off the northern coast of New Guinea. Lowland tropical rainforest dominates the larger islands, with characteristic canopy trees including Calophyllum, Barringtonia, and Terminalia, fringed by coastal shrub zones of Sararanga and Pandanus. The climate is warm and wet year-round, with daytime highs near 30 to 32 degrees Celsius, cooler nights, and about 3,400 millimeters of annual rainfall that peaks during the June-to-August wet season. Long isolation from any landmass has produced notable endemism, including several endemic birds such as the superb pitta and Manus fantail, the Admiralty flying-fox, and the emerald green snail, the first land snail listed as vulnerable by the IUCN. Commercial logging and forest conversion now place heavy pressure on the remaining forests, especially in the interior of Manus Island.

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.

The Alto Paraná Atlantic forests form the interior wing of South America's Atlantic Forest, sweeping inland from southern Brazil across eastern Paraguay and into Argentina's Misiones province, covering seven Brazilian states from Minas Gerais and São Paulo down to Rio Grande do Sul. The dominant habitat is Atlantic semi-deciduous forest, where emergent trees can reach about 35 meters and the canopy is built largely from the families Lauraceae, Apocynaceae, and Leguminosae, with many trees shedding leaves through the winter dry season. The climate is subtropical, receiving roughly 1,200 to 1,600 millimeters of rain per year, and the dry season from April through September brings frequent frosts. The region is a biodiversity stronghold, home to the endemic black lion tamarin, but it has been one of the most heavily cleared forests in the Neotropics, reduced by more than 90 percent of its original extent. For gardeners in mild subtropical climates, this is the native home of laurel- and legume-family trees adapted to a pronounced wet summer and dry, frost-prone winter.

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.

The Araucaria moist forests stretch across the highlands of southern Brazil, spanning the states of São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul, and reaching into Misiones Province in northeastern Argentina. Their signature is the Brazilian araucaria (Araucaria angustifolia), a monkey puzzle conifer that rises in a tall emergent layer above a broadleaf canopy of laurel (Ocotea), myrtle, and legume trees such as Mimosa scabrella. Lying above roughly 500 metres on mountains and plateaus, the ecoregion has an oceanic, subtropical to temperate climate with no dry season, frequent winter frosts, and high annual rainfall. It shelters threatened and endemic wildlife including the brown howler monkey and the red-spectacled (red-spectacled amazon) parrot, yet much of the original forest has been cleared and only a small fraction is protected. For gardeners in suitably cool, frost-touched climates, the emblematic Araucaria angustifolia is itself a striking ornamental conifer native to this region.