RAINFOREST IN MEXICO: CHARACTERISTICS, LOCATION, RELIEF, FLORA, FAUNA - ENVIRONMENT - 2025

The tropical jungle in Mexico constitutes the northernmost extreme to which these plant formations reach in America. In this country there are dry tropical forests and humid tropical forests with warm rain forests in plains, low flood forests and cloudy mountain forests.

These jungles extend in the southern half of the country, especially in Oaxaca, southern Veracruz, Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo. Dry rainforests have a low rainfall period, so half or more of the trees lose their foliage to survive.

Rainforests of Mexico (Lacandona, Mexico). Source: Carlos Rojas / Public domain

On the other hand, in the humid tropical forests the precipitations are abundant allowing an evergreen vegetation. In Mexico, tropical forests develop both on flat terrain and in high mountain areas.

Dry tropical forests are found in the plains of the Mexican Pacific coast of general flat relief. Similarly, in the lower parts of the slopes of the mountains that extend from north to south of the country.

The humid tropical forests are located in the coastal plains of the Gulf of Mexico and Tabasco. As well as in the plains of the Yucatan peninsula and in the high mountains of the Sierra de Chiapas.

The Mexican rainforests are home to numerous species of plants and animals. In the dry forests there are species of trees such as the copal and the tepehuaje, while in the humid forest the ceiba and the crawler inhabit.

Among the fauna present in the jungles of Mexico include the jaguar, tapir and tamanduá or arboreal anteater. Likewise, they are inhabited by monkeys such as the howler and the spider monkey, various species of snakes and numerous species of birds and insects.

General characteristics

Phytogeographic influences

The Mexican territory constitutes the transition between North America and Central America, whose limit is in the Transversal Volcanic Sierra. Therefore, Mexico has a vegetation that is influenced by both the northern and southern flora.

Thus, it has coniferous and angiosperm forests typical of the Holoctic vegetation (north) and forests typical of the neotropical vegetation (south). Due to this, there are even mixed formations such as the mountain mesophyll forest in the upper parts of the Sierra Madre.

Species from both phytogeographic kingdoms coexist here, with temperate pines and oaks together with podocarp, bromeliads and tropical orchids.

Weather

The Tropic of Cancer marks the dividing line between the arid and semi-arid climate of the north of the country and the humid and semi-humid climate of the south. The latter influenced by the oceanic incidence of the Atlantic, the trade winds and cyclones, forming a tropical climate with a summer rain regime.

It is in this area where the Mexican tropical forests develop with fairly stable annual temperatures during the year, with averages of 25 ºC. In the same they present two stations depending on the precipitations, one of drought and another rainy.

The dry season lasts from February to May when moderate to little rains can occur and from June to November the rainy season occurs.

In the rainy season around 80% of the annual rainfall is concentrated, which for the humid forests reaches over 2,500 mm per year. While in dry forests rainfall is much lower, not exceeding 600 mm.

Types of rainforests in Mexico

Dry or sub-humid forest

These jungles are characterized because due to the lack of water, a large part of the species that compose them lose their foliage in the dry season. In these cases, there may be 50% or fewer species that lose their foliage (sub-deciduous forests), or most of the plants present may be deciduous (deciduous forest).

These vegetation formations receive less precipitation than the humid forests and withstand higher temperatures.

Wet jungle

To the south is the evergreen or evergreen humid forest, with a warm and rainy tropical climate. They can vary in the height of the canopy, with tall forests with canopies of up to 40 m high and one or two lower strata, with abundant epiphytism and climbing.

Another type of humid forest is the medium one, where the canopy does not exceed 30 m, even low humid forests with an upper canopy of up to 15 m.

The Lacandon jungle

This jungle is located in the south of Mexico in the Sierra de Chiapas and represents about 50% of the humid tropical virgin Mexican forest. It is a warm high mountain forest with average temperatures of 22 ºC and annual rainfall of around 3,000 mm.

Lacandona Jungle (Mexico). Source: Marrovi / CC BY-SA 2.5 MX (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/mx/deed.en)

This rainforest originally covered 1.8 million hectares, but today it has been reduced by almost 75%. It has a canopy of 25 m high on average with emerging trees up to 50 m high.

More than 350 species of birds and about 70 species of mammals inhabit it. As for the flora, tree ferns abound, as well as numerous species of trees such as the ceiba (Ceiba pentandra) and the Mayan walnut (Brosimum alicastrum).

There are also many epiphytic species, that is, they live on other plants, such as orchids, bromeliads and araceae. Like climbing plants in the form of lianas or by sticky roots.

Low floodplain forests

In some areas of Lacandona there are low canopy forests located in depressions, which suffer from periods of waterlogging or flooding.

Location

The line that establishes the Tropic of Cancer crosses Mexico at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula. Therefore, the Mexican tropical zone extends from this imaginary line to the south, covering approximately half of the national territory.

Dry forests

These jungles extend along the entire Pacific coast from southern Sonora and southwest Chihuahua to Chiapas, continuing through Guatemala. However, most of it is heavily intervened to establish pastures for livestock production.

In general, the lower areas of the Sierra Madre are also occupied by dry forests. Likewise, it finds dry forest in the Tampico region on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and in the north of the Yucatan peninsula. The dry or sub-humid forests occupy an area of ​​little more than 20 million hectares.

Humid forests

They extend through the east and southeast of the country, from the southeast of San Luis de Potosí and the north of Veracruz to the north and northeast of Chiapas. They occupy the southern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and to the south and northeast of the Yucatan Peninsula.

There are also large areas in the south of the country on the border with Guatemala and Belize. These jungles constitute around 10 million hectares in Mexico.

Chamela jungle (Mexico). Source: Aedrake09 / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

The evergreen forests in the best state of conservation are those of Chiapas and those of Campeche in the Yucatan peninsula. Followed by those of Veracruz and Oaxaca, all in southern Mexico.

In Chiapas there are two biosphere reserves, the Lacan-tún biosphere reserve and the Montes Azules reserve in the Lacandona jungle. While in Veracruz is the Los Tuxtlas biosphere reserve.

Yucatan peninsula

In this peninsula there is a succession of tropical jungle vegetation, where the humid jungle is located to the south and east. Then, to the center and north, a sub-deciduous forest develops and to the north, the tropical deciduous forest.

Relief

Rainforests are distributed in the coastal lowlands on both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. Most of the rainforest is found in the Tabasco plain and on the platform of the Yucatan Peninsula.

Jungle in Tabasco (Mexico). Source: Alfonsobouchot / Public domain

While in the Sierra de Chiapas to the south there are mainly humid mountain forests at altitudes of up to 3,500 meters above sea level.

The dry forests are in the Pacific coastal plain, with a generally flat relief. Dry forests also develop in the lower parts of the mountain ranges, below 700 meters above sea level in the Sierra Madre Occidental, the Sierra Volcánica Transversal and the Sierra Madre del Sur.

Flora

Mexico is a megadiverse country and much of that biological diversity is in its tropical forests in the southern half of the territory.

- Wet jungle

Timber species abound here such as red cedar (Cedrella sp.), Mahogany (Swietenia spp.) And xochicauil or white laurel (Cordia alliodora). Also of economic interest is the chicozapote (Manilkara zapota), which is used to make chewing gum.

In addition, the southern forests are part of the center of origin of Persea, a genus of lauraceae to which the avocado (Persea americana) belongs. There are other species such as the tempisque (Sideroxylon capiri), the crawling (Astronium graveolens) and the huanacaxtle (Enterolobium cyclocarpum).

Understory

Giant herb species such as heliconia (Heliconia spp.), Small palms and shrubs of various families grow on the forest floor.

Low flood forest

There are species such as the pucté (Bucida busera). As well as the Campeche wood (Haematoxylum campechianum) and palms such as Acoelorrhaphe wrightii.

- Dry forest

In the dry forests there are species such as the pochote or ceiba (Ceiba pentandra) as well as the copals and mulatto sticks (Bursera spp.). Bursera species are dominant in these rainforests, with more than 100 species in the country being considered the center of diversity for this genus.

Palo mulatto (Bursera sp.). Source: Daderot / CC0

There are also legumes such as tepehuaje (Lysiloma acapulcense) and convolvuláceas such as hunter (Ipomoea arborescens).

Fauna

Mammals

The rainforests of Mexico are rich in fauna, with species such as the jaguar (Panthera onca), which finds its northern limit here. There are also many species of primates such as the howler monkey (Alouatta palliata) and the spider monkey (Ateles geoffrogyi).

Jaguar

Other animal species typical of the Neotropics that reach their northern limit in Mexico are the arboreal anteater (Tamandua mexicana) and the tapir (Tapirus bairdii). While others are typical of the Holarctic (North America) such as the raccoon (Procyon lotor).

Birds

Neotropic bird species such as the royal toucan (Ramphastos sulfuratus) and the scarlet macaw (Ara macao) are found in the Mexican rainforests. Some species are threatened with extinction, such as the Hocofaisán (Crax rubra) that inhabits both the plain and high mountain forests.

Scarlet macaw (Ara macao). Source: Bmanpitt Photography (Brian Pitcher) / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)

Endemic

An endemic bird to Central America, including the cloud forests of Mexico, is the quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno). An even more restricted distribution is found by the horned peacock bass (Oreophasis derbianus) that inhabits only the jungles of southern Mexico and northern Guatemala.

Reptiles

In the Mexican rainforests there are numerous species of snakes, most of them non-poisonous, such as the Boa constrictor. Among the poisonous snakes are various species of corals of the genus Micrurus.

There are also about 20 species of nauyacas or pit vipers belonging to different genera. Among them are the velvet (Bothrops asper) and the Mexican horned viper (Ophryacus undulatus).

Another reptile that inhabits these tropical forests is the green iguana (Iguana iguana), feeding on leaves between the branches of the trees. On the other hand, rivers and swamps are home to the Mexican crocodile (Crocodylus moreletii), which can reach up to 3 m in length.

References

1. Calow, P. (Ed.) (1998). The encyclopedia of ecology and environmental management.
2. Hernández-Ramírez, AM and García-Méndez, S. (2014). Diversity, structure and regeneration of the seasonally dry tropical forest of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Tropical biology.
3. Pennington, TD (2005). Tropical trees of Mexico: manual for the identification of the main species. UNAM.
4. Purves, WK, Sadava, D., Orians, GH and Heller, HC (2001). Life. The science of biology.
5. Raven, P., Evert, RF and Eichhorn, SE (1999). Biology of plants.
6. World Wild Life (Seen on March 16, 2020). Taken from: worldwildlife.org