The Tonle Sap freshwater swamp forests cloak the seasonally flooded floodplains of Tonle Sap, the largest lake in Cambodia, extending south along the Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers into southern Vietnam. The vegetation is shaped almost entirely by inundation: a stunted swamp forest roughly 7 to 15 meters tall rings the lake, giving way to short, deciduous swamp shrubland dominated by members of the Euphorbiaceae, Fabaceae, and Combretaceae families, with Barringtonia acutangula (the "freshwater mangrove") and Diospyros cambodiana among the characteristic trees. The climate is a tropical savanna type (Koppen Aw) with a pronounced dry season, and during the wet season the backed-up Mekong submerges the floodplain under several meters of water for more than eight months. The wetlands are among the most important waterbird habitats in the region, supporting storks, pelicans, ibises, and cormorants along with seventeen globally threatened bird species, and the smooth-coated otter serves as the ecoregion's flagship; however, only about ten percent of its forests still remain, with surviving areas protected largely through the Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve. For gardeners, Barringtonia and Diospyros are familiar ornamental and fruiting genera, here adapted to standing water and a strongly seasonal flood pulse.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 10.1°N, 105.8°E.
Climate snapshot for this ecoregion
°C
°F
Current zone range (2011–2040)
13b
Plotwright
CHELSA-derived typical winter month at this ecoregion's bbox grid.
Projected (2041–2070)
13b
Plotwright
Where the CHELSA models say the typical winter month is heading.
Average warming this ecoregion is on track for: +3.5°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
10,049 sq mi
Conservation tier
Nature Imperiled (Dinerstein NNH 4)
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: