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Upper Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests

Upper Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests

Upper Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests
The Upper Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests stretch across the alluvial plain of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in northern India, covering most of Uttar Pradesh along with adjacent parts of Uttarakhand, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar, plus a small strip of southern Nepal. These forests were historically dominated by sal (Shorea robusta) in association with Terminalia, Lagerstroemia, Adina, Dillenia, and Ficus, while flood-prone ground carried tall Saccharum grasses. The climate is subtropical, with rainfall arriving mainly during the June-to-September southwest monsoon and decreasing from east to west across the plain. Most of this fertile region has been converted to intensive agriculture, leaving only scattered forest enclaves protected in parks such as Corbett, Rajaji, and Dudhwa, which still shelter the gharial, the Ganges river dolphin, and nearly 300 recorded bird species. For gardeners, several genera native here, including Lagerstroemia (crape myrtle), Dillenia, and Ficus, are familiar ornamental and shade plants.
RESOLVE 287
Indomalayan
101,585 sq mi
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Landscape type
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Plant region
Indomalayan
Region footprint
101,585 sq mi
Habitat pressure
Nature Imperiled (Dinerstein NNH 4)
Use this as the broad planting pattern for the region: 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. For garden decisions, pair that context with the plant list below, then narrow by your site's light, water, soil, and mature-size constraints.

Range & origins

Upper Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests location on world map
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 27.0°N, 80.2°E.
Region through time
Modern footprint
RESOLVE 2017 maps 101,585 sq mi
This boundary is a modern ecological footprint for Upper Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests, not a permanent line on the planet. It is useful for today's plant and wildlife context because it follows recurring vegetation, climate, landform, and disturbance patterns.
Why here
tropical & subtropical moist broadleaf forests conditions
The region sits in the Indomalayan realm and is classed as tropical & subtropical moist broadleaf forests. Elevation, moisture, fire, soils, coasts, and human land use can all make the real landscape more varied than a single map color suggests.
Change pressure
Nature Imperiled
Plotwright shows this as the current RESOLVE footprint. Over decades to centuries, warming, disturbance, invasive species, land use, and restoration can move the living edge of a region even when the reference map stays fixed.

Planting collections

Finished planting recipes where every member can handle this region's climate range. The fit badge uses the collection's most sensitive plant, so a resilient collection is a safer starting point than any single standout.
Climate-resilient · 2 plants
Bright shade foundation
A part-shade planting with shrub structure and low foliage contrast.
Annabelle hydrangea
Coral bells
+4
Climate-resilient · 8 plants
Climate-resilient natives for warming zones (eastern NA)
A pollinator-supporting palette of eastern North American natives with broad hardiness ranges and wide native distributions. Built for gardeners who want a planting that can handle warming zones without giving up wildlife value.
Switchgrass
Little bluestem
Common milkweed
Black-eyed Susan
Wild bergamot
Sweet Joe-Pye weed
Cutleaf coneflower
New England aster
Climate-resilient · 3 plants
Kitchen patio planters
A compact edible collection for containers, patios, and near-door harvesting.
Genovese basil
Lacinato kale
Coral bells
+2
Climate-resilient · 6 plants
Mediterranean drought-tolerant edible
A low-water edible palette of culinary herbs + a hardy grape for hot dry sunny sites. Mediterranean-origin plants thrive on neglect; their primary failure mode is overwatering, not underwatering.
English lavender
Rosemary
Garden sage
Oregano
Common thyme
Fox grape
+5
Climate-resilient · 9 plants
Native pollinator border (eastern US)
A continuous-bloom native pollinator strip for eastern North America. Covers spring through frost with host + nectar plants spanning monarchs, native bees, hummingbirds, and specialist Lepidoptera. Little bluestem provides the matrix grass + Hesperiidae host.
Butterfly weed
Common milkweed
Purple coneflower
Wild bergamot
Scarlet bee balm
Little bluestem
Sweet Joe-Pye weed
Swamp sunflower
Smooth blue aster
Climate-resilient · 4 plants
Sunny pollinator border
A durable sunny border with summer bloom, seedheads, and upright winter texture.
English lavender
Purple coneflower
Black-eyed Susan
Switchgrass

Similar planting regions

Browse other regions with a similar hot, dry-summer rhythm. Their plant lists can suggest species and combinations worth comparing.
RESOLVE 218 - Indomalayan
Andaman Islands rain forests
The Andaman Islands rain forests cover the Andaman archipelago in the eastern Bay of Bengal, most of which forms part of India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands, with the Coco Islands at the northern end belonging to Myanmar. The vegetation grades from coastal mangroves dominated by the family Rhizophoraceae into inland evergreen and deciduous forests dominated by tall trees of the family Dipterocarpaceae. The climate is tropical and monsoonal, with temperatures generally between 22 and 30 degrees Celsius and annual rainfall of roughly 3,000 to 3,800 millimetres falling mainly in the monsoon season, when cyclonic winds and thunderstorms are common. These islands are a notable storehouse of plant diversity: over 2,500 flowering plant species have been recorded, about 10 percent of them endemic, alongside endemic birds such as the flagship Andaman serpent-eagle, though forest clearing and over-exploitation remain pressing threats. For gardeners drawn to tropical genera, native trees here include Dipterocarpus and the prized Andaman padauk, Pterocarpus dalbergioides.
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Zones 13b
+2.4°F by 2070
2,207 sq mi
NNH tier 2
RESOLVE 219 - Indomalayan
Borneo lowland rain forests
The Borneo lowland rain forests blanket most of Borneo below about 1,000 meters elevation, spanning Indonesian Kalimantan, the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, and Brunei. These are classic dipterocarp forests: towering members of the family Dipterocarpaceae form the emergent canopy, with characteristic genera including Shorea, Dipterocarpus, Dryobalanops, Hopea, and Vatica. The climate is stable, wet, and tropical, with rainfall spread through the year and high humidity, and little seasonal temperature variation. Biodiversity here ranks among the richest on Earth, with the island holding the world's greatest dipterocarp diversity (over 260 species, more than 150 of them endemic to Borneo) alongside hundreds of bird species and flagship mammals such as the Bornean orangutan and Sunda clouded leopard. For gardeners, the region is the native home of horticulturally familiar plants, including a wealth of orchids and the fruit-bearing genus Artocarpus (breadfruit and jackfruit).
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Zones 13b
+2.9°F by 2070
165,170 sq mi
NNH tier 2
RESOLVE 220 - Indomalayan
Borneo montane rain forests
The Borneo montane rain forests cloak the central mountainous spine of Borneo above roughly 1,000 metres, spanning the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, the Indonesian region of Kalimantan, and Brunei. Rising above the lowland dipterocarp forests, the slopes shift into oak, beech, and chestnut forests of the Fagaceae and Lauraceae, with conifers growing more abundant at higher elevations and Ericaceae-dominated forest, including many Rhododendron species, near the peaks. This is a classic cloud forest: cooler and moister than the lowlands, it receives heavy rainfall and draws additional moisture directly from low clouds, grading from tropical conditions up to alpine zones on summits such as the 4,095-metre Mount Kinabalu. The ecoregion is a stronghold of endemic life, with the Bornean orangutan as its flagship species, twenty-three bird species found nowhere else, and a striking flora of carnivorous Nepenthes pitcher plants and orchids. Roughly three-quarters of its forest remains relatively intact, with about a quarter under formal protection. For gardeners, it is the wild home of montane Rhododendrons and tropical orchids long prized in cultivation.
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Zones 13b
+3.1°F by 2070
46,080 sq mi
NNH tier 2
RESOLVE 221 - Indomalayan
Borneo peat swamp forests
The Borneo peat swamp forests stretch across the coastal lowlands of Borneo, spanning Indonesian Kalimantan, the Malaysian state of Sarawak, and the Belait District of Brunei, built up behind brackish mangroves and clustered around the inland lakes of the Mahakam and Kapuas rivers. These forests grow on waterlogged, acidic peat that can exceed twenty meters in depth, where anaerobic conditions slow decomposition; characteristic canopy trees include the valuable hardwood ramin (Gonystylus bancanus), Shorea albida, Dactylocladus stenostachys, and Dacrydium beccarii, alongside more than thirty palm species. The climate is tropical and monsoonal, with year-round waterlogging and seasonal flooding. The proboscis monkey is the ecoregion's flagship species, which also shelters the Bornean orangutan and the prized Asian arowana (Scleropages formosus), yet it is considered critical or endangered, with only about 14 percent protected and much of the peat drained, logged, or burned. For gardeners, the swamps' native understory includes ornamental screw pines of the genus Pandanus, grown elsewhere for their bold, strappy foliage.
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Zones 13b
+3.2°F by 2070
26,069 sq mi
NNH tier 2
RESOLVE 222 - Indomalayan
Brahmaputra Valley semi-evergreen forests
The Brahmaputra Valley semi-evergreen forests blanket the alluvial floodplain of the upper Brahmaputra River, spanning northeastern India (chiefly Assam, with Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland), southern Bhutan, and adjacent Bangladesh. As the name implies, the natural cover is semi-evergreen forest, mixing an evergreen canopy of Syzygium and Cinnamomum with deciduous trees such as Terminalia, Bombax ceiba, and Tetrameles, an understory including Mesua ferrea, and stands of bamboo. The climate is monsoon-driven, with heavy southwest-monsoon rains from June to September that flood the plain and renew its fertile silt, giving way to a cooler, drier winter. Though much of the original forest has been cleared and only a small fraction is protected, the surviving reserves are globally important: Kaziranga National Park holds the world's largest population of greater one-horned rhinoceros, alongside one of India's largest Asian elephant populations, and the golden langur is among the ecoregion's flagship species. For gardeners, several signature trees here, including the red silk-cotton Bombax ceiba and the fragrant-flowered Mesua ferrea, are long-grown as tropical ornamentals.
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Zones 6b-12b
+4.7°F by 2070
21,893 sq mi
NNH tier 4
RESOLVE 223 - Indomalayan
Cardamom Mountains rain forests
The Cardamom Mountains rain forests cover the wet evergreen highlands of the Cardamom and Elephant mountains in southwestern Cambodia and southeastern Thailand, extending to Vietnam's Phu Quoc island along the Gulf of Thailand. Forests here grade from lowland and hill evergreen stands into montane forest, where the beech family (Fagaceae) genera Lithocarpus and Castanopsis dominate alongside Lauraceae trees such as Cinnamomum and Litsea, with myrtle-family Syzygium and abundant epiphytic orchids. Rising steeply to over 1,500 meters, the range intercepts moisture-laden monsoon winds and receives very high annual rainfall, exceeding 5,000 millimeters in some valleys. Part of the globally important Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot, it is one of Southeast Asia's most species-rich and endemic-rich forests, sheltering Asian elephants, tigers, clouded leopards, endemic chestnut-headed and Siamese partridges, and the critically endangered Siamese crocodile, with much of the range now within Southern Cardamom National Park. For gardeners, native genera such as the aromatic Cinnamomum and the ornamental Syzygium illustrate the region's warm, perpetually humid, frost-free climate.
Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
Zones 13a-13b
+3.2°F by 2070
17,081 sq mi
NNH tier 2

Sources & citations

Cite this page
For lesson plans, articles, or regional planting notes that use this Plotwright page. To cite the underlying ecoregion framework or a specific editorial profile, use the source cards below.
Plotwright. (n.d.). Upper Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests (Upper Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests). Retrieved 2026, June 14, from https://plotwright.garden/regions/resolve-287
Sources for this region
This page cites Plotwright first for the compiled view, then lists the upstream framework, climate, and editorial source pages so readers can cite the original material directly.
RESOLVE 2017 Terrestrial Ecoregions (Dinerstein et al.)
Primary ecoregion framework
Backs 4 fields
RESOLVE id
Biome + realm
Area
NNH tier
One Earth
One Earth
Backs 1 field
Editorial summary
Wikipedia
Wikimedia Foundation
Backs 1 field
Summary cross-check