The Jamaican moist forests cover roughly 85 percent of Jamaica, the Neotropical island whose rugged interior includes the Blue Mountains, the John Crow Mountains, and the limestone karst of Cockpit Country. Much of the island has a limestone substrate, and the forests vary with substrate, elevation, and rainfall, grouped broadly into limestone, shale, and coastal alluvial and wetland forests. The climate is tropical and ranges from subhumid to humid, with annual rainfall increasing sharply with elevation and tropical cyclones occurring roughly between June and November. Jamaica is botanically exceptional, ranking fifth among the world's islands for the share of its flora found nowhere else, and Cockpit Country alone is estimated to hold about 1,500 vascular plant species, some 400 of them endemic to the island. The forests also shelter 28 endemic bird species, the most of any Caribbean island, along with the Jamaican hutia, the island's only remaining endemic land mammal; the ecoregion is classed as Critical or Endangered, pressured by deforestation, bauxite mining, and invasive species.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 18.2°N, 77.3°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
3,202 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: