The Tonle Sap-Mekong peat swamp forests form a patchwork of permanently inundated freshwater forest across Cambodia and Vietnam, ringing Tonle Sap Lake and River in central Cambodia and reaching into the Haut Chhlong and Blao regions and the southern Mekong Delta. The most widespread formation is dominated by the palm Livistona cochinchinensis, which grows to over 30 meters, alongside canopy trees such as Eugenia, Elaeocarpus, and Calophyllum, with reedy wetlands of Phragmites karka and Coix gigantea and paperbark swamps of Melaleuca leucadendron. The climate is a tropical savanna type with dry winters, and poor drainage leaves the shallow standing water stagnant and anoxic, retarding decomposition so that peat accumulates and trees develop stilt roots and pneumatophores. Conservation here is dire: less than 10 percent of the ecoregion remains in its original state and less than 1 percent is protected, with many large mammals such as wild water buffalo and Eld's deer already extirpated and the white-shouldered ibis serving as its flagship species. For gardeners, the native paperbark Melaleuca leucadendron is a familiar ornamental and shade tree well suited to wet, poorly drained ground.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 11.1°N, 105.7°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: +3.3°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
11,343 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: