The Luang Prabang montane rain forests cover the highlands above roughly 800 meters in northern and central Laos, reaching into small areas of northeastern Thailand and barely touching northern Vietnam along the Luang Prabang mountains. The vegetation shifts with elevation, from lower montane forest dominated by Dipterocarpus turbinatus and the wax tree Toxicodendron succedaneum into broadleaf evergreen and mixed conifer-hardwood forests where Castanopsis hystrix, oaks such as Quercus griffithii, and conifers including the Khasi pine Pinus kesiya and Keteleeria evelyniana take over. The climate is a tropical monsoon regime, with very high rainfall of about 2,000 to 3,000 millimeters falling during the summer rainy season and a long dry season the rest of the year. It is a notably rich ecoregion, home to the flagship marbled cat, a diverse community of small carnivores, and over 540 recorded bird species including the green peafowl, though more than half of its natural forest still lies outside protected areas. For gardeners, the lower forests also harbor ornamental palms native to the region, including fishtail palms (Caryota), Arenga, and climbing rattans (Calamus).
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 18.5°N, 102.2°E.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
Current zone range (2011–2040)
12a-13a
Plotwright
CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
12a-13b
Plotwright
Where the CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +3.3°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
Indomalayan
Approximate area
27,724 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.
Climate-resilient picks · 4
These plants fit this ecoregion today AND remain in range under the mid-century SSP3-7.0 projection. Lead with these for a planting that holds up as the climate shifts.
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: