The Central Range Papuan montane rain forests cloak the mountain spine of New Guinea, running along the Central Cordillera from Indonesia in the west into Papua New Guinea in the east, generally between about 1,000 and 3,000 meters elevation. Vegetation shifts with altitude: lower montane forests hold oaks of the beech family such as Castanopsis acuminatissima and Lithocarpus alongside laurels, Elaeocarpus, and tall stands of Araucaria, while upper slopes are dominated by moss-draped evergreen southern beech (Nothofagus) and the highest forests turn to ancient conifers like Podocarpus, Dacrycarpus, and Papuacedrus mixed with myrtle-family trees. The climate is humid, tropical, and ever-wet, with rainfall exceeding 2,500 mm annually across most of the highlands and surpassing 7,000 mm in the wettest catchments, and temperatures averaging around 18 degrees Celsius and cooling with elevation. These highlands are a global hotspot for birds-of-paradise and carry exceptionally high endemism in mammals, birds, and vascular plants, though only roughly 14 percent lies in protected areas such as Lorentz National Park. For gardeners, the region is the native home of ornamental conifers including Araucaria and Podocarpus.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 6.4°S, 145.3°E.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
Current zone range (2011–2040)
12a-13b
Plotwright
CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
12a-13b
Plotwright
Where the CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +3.1°F by mid-century. SSP3-7.0 (current trajectory) · CHELSA v2.1 bio06 sampled across 10 of 10 points within this ecoregion's bounding box.
At a glance
Dominant biome
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Realm
Australasia
Approximate area
66,400 sq mi
Conservation tier
Nature Could Reach Half Protected (Dinerstein NNH 2)
About the tropical & subtropical moist broadleaf forests biome
Warm, wet, highly productive forests — including tropical rainforests — with closed canopies, near year-round growing seasons, and the richest terrestrial biodiversity on Earth. Low seasonality and high rainfall sustain dense, layered vegetation from canopy to forest floor.
Catalog plants suited to this ecoregion
Computed from each plant's stated USDA zone range against this ecoregion's CHELSA-derived current zone range, with the CHELSA mid-century warming delta applied for the projection. Plants whose stated range falls outside both the current and projected zone end up dropped; the rest land in one of the three buckets below.
Climate-resilient picks · 4
These plants fit this ecoregion today AND remain in range under the mid-century SSP3-7.0 projection. Lead with these for a planting that holds up as the climate shifts.
No curated collection's plants all fit this ecoregion's zone range. We surface a collection only when every member would grow here — partial fits get filtered out rather than mislead. As the catalog and the curated set both grow, this section will fill in.
Related ecoregions
Other tropical & subtropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregions to explore: