The Ethiopian montane forests cloak the southwestern and southeastern portions of the Ethiopian Highlands, entirely within Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa. This is Afromontane moist broadleaf forest, splitting into a lower transitional belt and denser moist evergreen forest higher up, with a canopy of trees such as Olea, Aningeria, Syzygium guineense, Croton macrostachyus, Warburgia ugandensis, and Prunus africana, plus the bamboo Yushania alpina. The climate is comparatively cool and humid for the region, fed by moisture-bearing winds and frequent cloud precipitation across an elevation range of roughly 1,000 to 3,000 meters. These rugged forests hold high endemism, including range-restricted highland birds like Prince Ruspoli's turaco, but face heavy pressure from deforestation, conversion to agriculture, and overgrazing. For gardeners, the forests are notable as a wild home of Coffea arabica, which grows here as an understory shrub.

At a glance

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.

Collections for this ecoregion

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