The Granitic Seychelles forests cover the ancient granite islands of the Republic of Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean lying roughly 930 km northeast of Madagascar and including the largest islands of Mahe, Praslin, Silhouette, and La Digue. Native vegetation is a mosaic of palm, pandanus (screw pine), and hardwood forest that grades into mossy, ferny cloud forest on the higher peaks. The climate is humid and tropical with little seasonal variation in temperature, shaped by heavy monsoon rains from November to February and steady southeast trade winds during the cooler months. Long isolation has produced exceptional endemism: flagship plants include the jellyfish tree (Medusagyne oppositifolia), one of the world's rarest trees, and the giant double-coconut palm coco de mer (Lodoicea maldivica), restricted to Praslin and Curieuse. Only small remnants of natural forest survive, with the finest intact native palm forest protected in the Vallee de Mai World Heritage Site on Praslin.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 4.7°S, 55.5°E.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
Current zone range (2011–2040)
13b
Plotwright
CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
13b
Plotwright
Where the CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +2.8°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
Afrotropic
Approximate area
119 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
No catalog plants intersect this ecoregion's zone range. As the catalog grows to cover this region's climate band, suggestions will surface here.
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
Other tropical & subtropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregions to explore: