The Western Congolian swamp forests stretch along the western bank of the Congo River across the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Central African Republic, forming part of one of the largest continuous freshwater swamp forests on Earth. The landscape is a mosaic of permanently flooded swamp forest, seasonally flooded forest, and flooded grassland, with near-monospecific stands of Raphia palm in the wettest zones and trees such as Guibourtia demeusei, Mitragyna, Symphonia globulifera, Uapaca, and Alstonia congensis, while Gilbertiodendron dewevrei dominates the river-levee forests. The climate is wet-tropical and classified as tropical rainforest (Koppen Af), hot and humid year-round with little seasonality and rain in every month. These remote, hard-to-penetrate forests remain largely intact and shelter African forest elephant, western lowland gorilla, and chimpanzee, with extensive areas protected and several Ramsar wetland sites; the underlying peatlands also store enormous quantities of carbon. For gardeners, the region is the native home of horticulturally familiar genera including the raffia palms (Raphia) and Garcinia.
Marker placed inside the RESOLVE 2017 polygon at 1.1°N, 18.0°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: +4.2°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
Afrotropic
Approximate area
49,666 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: