The Isthmian-Pacific moist forests stretch in a narrow band along the Pacific slope of southern Costa Rica and western Panama, running roughly 500 km from the lowlands up into the foothills of the Talamanca and Central cordilleras, and taking in near-shore islands of the Gulf of Chiriqui. Vegetation grades from broadleaf evergreen forest and tall gallery forest, where wild cashew and kapok trees can reach 70 to 80 meters, down to seasonal swamp forests and coastal mangroves. The climate is a tropical monsoon regime with consistently warm temperatures year-round and a pronounced dry season, though rainfall is high and the wet season long. Sitting at the meeting zone between North and South American floras, the region is exceptionally biodiverse, with high amphibian endemism; its flagship is the clown frog, and protected strongholds such as Corcovado National Park still shelter jaguars and Baird's tapir. Gardeners may recognize native canopy genera here, including kapok (Ceiba) and the wild cashew, that anchor these humid lowland forests.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 8.4°N, 82.0°W.
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: +3.0°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
Neotropic
Approximate area
11,310 sq mi
Conservation tier
Nature Could Recover (Dinerstein NNH 3)
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: