The Luzon tropical pine forests cover the high country of Luzon, the largest island of the Philippines, concentrated in the Cordillera Central of the north (including peaks such as Mount Pulag and Mount Data) and extending to the Zambales Mountains of west-central Luzon. The signature tree is the Benguet pine (Pinus insularis, also called Khasi or Luzon pine), which stands thinly spaced above open, grass-covered slopes rather than forming closed canopy. The climate is strongly seasonal: rainfall is high, well over 2,500 mm a year, but falls mostly during the July-August monsoon and typhoon season, followed by a long dry season from roughly November to April when fires help keep the pine-grassland in balance. The ecoregion is rich in endemic life, with the elegant tit as its flagship bird and a notable array of endemic Cordillera mammals such as cloud rats and earthworm mice, yet it is classed as Critical/Endangered, pressured by logging, burning, agricultural clearing, and mining. For gardeners, its defining native conifer is a hardy tropical-montane pine adapted to cool uplands and a pronounced dry season.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 17.0°N, 120.9°E.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
Current zone range (2011–2040)
12a-13b
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: +3.1°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 Coniferous Forests
Realm
Indomalayan
Approximate area
2,732 sq mi
Conservation tier
Nature Could Reach Half Protected (Dinerstein NNH 2)
About the tropical & subtropical coniferous forests biome
Subtropical and tropical forests dominated by conifers such as pines, typically in semi-arid climates with seasonal rainfall. They often occupy higher elevations and carry fire-adapted understories.
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 coniferous forests ecoregions to explore: