The Northern Andean páramo is a band of high-altitude grasslands that lie above the tree line and below the snow line in the equatorial Andes of Colombia and Ecuador, generally between about 3,000 and 5,000 meters. Its vegetation is a distinctive mix of tussock or bunch grasses such as Calamagrostis and Festuca, giant rosette plants of the genus Espeletia (the frailejones), low cushion plants, and shrubs of the heath family (Ericaceae). The climate is cold, humid, and cloud-bound, with moisture arriving as rain, fog, and low cloud; annual rainfall ranges roughly from 500 to 3,000 millimeters, and temperatures can fall below freezing at night yet climb toward 30°C by day. Plant endemism is very high, and the páramo serves as habitat for threatened animals including the mountain tapir and the spectacled bear, though burning, overgrazing, and road building remain ongoing pressures. For gardeners, the showy frailejón rosettes (Espeletia) and the many native heaths reflect the cool, perpetually moist conditions this ecoregion demands.

At a glance

About the montane grasslands & shrublands biome

High-elevation grasslands, meadows, and shrublands above the treeline or in mountain basins, including alpine and páramo systems. Cool temperatures, intense sunlight, and specialized, often endemic flora characterize them.

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.

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