The Hawai'i tropical moist forests blanket the windward lowlands and montane slopes of the Hawaiian archipelago in the Pacific. The ecoregion is a mosaic of coastal and mixed mesic forests, montane rainforests, wet shrublands, and bogs, with 'ohi'a lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha) and koa (Acacia koa) forming the dominant canopy alongside genera such as Cheirodendron, Melicope, Myrsine, and Syzygium. Its climate is shaped by moisture-laden trade winds off the windward slopes, and it harbors one of the world's wettest places on the slopes of Mount Waiʻaleʻale on Kauaʻi, which averages roughly 9,500 mm of rain a year. Tens of millions of years of oceanic isolation have driven extraordinary endemism here, from fungi and land snails to the spectacular radiation of Hawaiian honeycreepers, and the forest's flagship is the scarlet I'iwi. That heritage is now imperiled: of more than 110 native bird species the forests once held, only 48 remain, and the ecoregion is considered critically endangered. Native ornamentals from these forests include the loulu fan palms (Pritchardia) and hala (Pandanus tectorius).
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 19.7°N, 155.2°W.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
Current zone range (2011–2040)
12b-13b
Plotwright
CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
13a-13b
Plotwright
Where the CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +2.9°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
Oceania
Approximate area
2,601 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.
Currently suited · 4
These plants fit the ecoregion as it is today, but the mid-century projection moves them outside their stated zone range — plan for them to struggle by 2070.
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: