Plants of Ecuador
Ecuador, which only occupies 0.2 % of the planet's area but blessed by its tropical location and other important characteristics, like its altitudinal ranges and a climate devoid of winter conditions for the most parts, has a very diverse vegetation with more than 25 000 species of plants present in the country, which represents approximately 10% of all plants known in the world One of the most diverse in plants of its many bio-geographical regions are the tropical rainforests, where often 300 different species of trees are found in one hectare alone. Many of those tropical trees and palms reach heights of up to 30m and support by themselves a multitude of many other plants like epiphytes and vines. Some of them have medicinal value figured out by trial and error over thousand years by the indigenous people. Moving higher up the mountains you encounter another rich nature zone, the vegetation-dense cloudforests, which is especially diverse in Orchids and Bromeliads and many other flowering plants. There you also find a high variety of ferns and mosses. Trees abound but do not reach the immense heights of the lower tropical rainforests of the Amazon. Reaching the Inter-Andean valleys, we find more natural diversity but also a region, which was completely changed by man and where now many exotic plants are dominant.
Ecuador, which only occupies 0.2 % of the planet's area but blessed by its tropical location and other important characteristics, like its altitudinal ranges and a climate devoid of winter conditions for the most parts, has a very diverse vegetation with more than 25 000 species of plants present in the country, which represents approximately 10% of all plants known in the world One of the most diverse in plants of its many bio-geographical regions are the tropical rainforests, where often 300 different species of trees are found in one hectare alone. Many of those tropical trees and palms reach heights of up to 30m and support by themselves a multitude of many other plants like epiphytes and vines. Some of them have medicinal value figured out by trial and error over thousand years by the indigenous people. Moving higher up the mountains you encounter another rich nature zone, the vegetation-dense cloudforests, which is especially diverse in Orchids and Bromeliads and many other flowering plants. There you also find a high variety of ferns and mosses. Trees abound but do not reach the immense heights of the lower tropical rainforests of the Amazon. Reaching the Inter-Andean valleys, we find more natural diversity but also a region, which was completely changed by man and where now many exotic plants are dominant.