The Northwestern Andean montane forests cloak the western slopes of the Andes in Colombia and Ecuador, running along the Cordillera Occidental as a roughly 150-km-wide montane belt within the Neotropic realm. Stacked life zones grade from tall premontane and sub-Andean forests up into stunted, moss-draped cloud forests near the treeline, where epiphytes flourish: bromeliads, aroids, orchids, melastomes, and ferns reach some of their greatest diversity here, alongside native trees such as the Andean oak (Quercus humboldtii) and Colombian walnut (Juglans neotropica). The climate is humid and tropical, with rainfall typically averaging 2,000-4,000 mm a year and tapering toward 1,000-2,000 mm at the higher elevations. It ranks among the planet's most biodiverse ecoregions, with up to half of its flora found nowhere else and flagship animals like the diminutive northern pudu, yet protection is thin and much of the land has been modified by farming and grazing, even as sizable stands of continuous forest endure. For gardeners drawn to the tropics, this is a heartland of ornamental epiphytic orchids and bromeliads native to its cool, perpetually misty forests.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 2.2°N, 77.6°W.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
Current zone range (2011–2040)
11b-13b
Plotwright
CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
11b-13b
Plotwright
Where the CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +3.4°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
31,373 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 · 52
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: