The Sierra Madre del Sur pine-oak forests blanket the mountain ranges of southern Mexico that run parallel to the Pacific coast, spanning the states of Michoacan, Guerrero, and Oaxaca. As the name suggests, the forests are built around oaks (Quercus) and pines (Pinus), with characteristic species including Quercus magnoliifolia, Q. castanea, Pinus pseudostrobus, and Pinus herrerae, while firs (Abies) take over at the highest elevations and humid cloud forests gather on mid-slopes. Conditions are temperate to subhumid, with rainfall in the range of about 800 to 1,600 mm a year across an elevation span reaching from roughly 100 to 3,500 meters. The region is an exceptional center of endemism: it holds some 595 plant species with seven endemic genera and 160 native birds, 28 of them found nowhere else, and its flagship animal is the Omiltemi cottontail rabbit. For gardeners, the ecoregion is also home to ornamental natives such as the Texas madrone (Arbutus xalapensis) and several endemic magnolias.

At a glance

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.

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