The South Western Ghats montane rain forests cloak the higher southern reaches of India's Western Ghats, spanning the states of Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu at elevations above roughly 1,000 meters. The dominant cover is moist evergreen montane forest with characteristic canopy trees such as Cullenia exarillata, Mesua ferrea, and Palaquium ellipticum, giving way at higher elevations to the distinctive shola-grassland mosaic, where stunted shola woodlands hold trees like Rhododendron arboreum subspecies nilagiricum and Magnolia nilagirica. The climate is wet and strongly seasonal, fed by the June-to-September southwest monsoon and supplemented by a northeast monsoon from October to November, with annual rainfall exceeding 2,800 millimeters and some terrain receiving far more. It is among the most species-rich and endemic-rich regions in peninsular India, where over a third of plant species are found nowhere else and the Nilgiri tahr serves as a flagship animal. For gardeners, native ornamentals of note include the montane Rhododendron and Magnolia of the sholas and the abundant epiphytic orchids that festoon the forest canopy.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 10.9°N, 76.5°E.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
Current zone range (2011–2040)
13a-13b
Plotwright
CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
13a-13b
Plotwright
Where the CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +3.3°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
8,739 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
No catalog plants intersect this ecoregion's zone range. As the catalog grows to cover this region's climate band, suggestions will surface here.
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
Other tropical & subtropical moist broadleaf forests ecoregions to explore: