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Northern Triangle subtropical forests
Northern Triangle subtropical forests
RESOLVE 259
The Northern Triangle subtropical forests cover remote, mountainous terrain in the far north of Myanmar, occupying much of Kachin State where the land rises from valley floors to peaks approaching 3,900 meters as an offshoot of the eastern Himalayas. The forests are overwhelmingly closed and evergreen: subtropical broadleaf stands at lower and middle elevations are dominated by trees of the Magnoliaceae, Lauraceae, and Dipterocarpaceae families, giving way higher up to oak and Fagaceae forests and a pine-oak association of Pinus kesiya with Quercus incana, Quercus serrata, and Quercus griffithii. The climate is an oceanic, subtropical highland variety (Koppen Cwb) with cool summers and cool but not cold winters, and relatively even temperatures and precipitation through the year. Because it sits at the crossroads of the Assam-Indian, Eastern Himalayan, Indo-Malayan, and Chinese floristic zones, the ecoregion is exceptionally biodiverse, supporting over 140 species of mammals and 370 species of birds, with the Burmese snub-nosed monkey as its flagship and large unfragmented tracts sheltering tiger, red panda, and Asian elephant. For gardeners, its native flora includes the rare slipper orchid Paphiopedilum wardii.
Northern Triangle subtropical forests location on world map
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 26.3°N, 97.2°E.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
Current zone range (2011–2040)
9b-12b
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CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
10a-12b
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Where the CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +3.8°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
20,797 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.
Currently suited · 103
These plants fit the ecoregion as it is today, but the mid-century projection moves them outside their stated zone range — plan for them to struggle by 2070.
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.
Sources
Summary drawn from One Earth, Wikipedia.
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Climate-aware plant planning — every plant checked against your zone now and in 2050.
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