Meghalaya subtropical forests

The Meghalaya subtropical forests is a montane subtropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion of eastern India. The ecoregion covers an area of 41,700 square kilometers (16,100 sq mi), encompassing the Khasi Hills, Garo Hills, and Jaintia Hills of India's Meghalaya state, and adjacent portions of Assam state. The ecoregion is one of the most species-rich in India with a rich diversity of birds, mammals, and plants.

The ecoregion covers those portions of the Khasi, Garo, and Jaintia hills lying above 1000 meters elevation. The subtropical forests lies between the tropical lowlands of the Lower Gangetic Plains moist deciduous forests to the south and west, and the Brahmaputra Valley semi-evergreen forests to the north.

It is one of the wettest ecoregions in the world, with some places, notably Mawsynram and Cherrapunji, receiving up to eleven meters of rain in a year.

It is a center of diversity for the tree genera Magnolia and Michelia, and the families Elaeocarpaceae and Elaeagnaceae. Over 320 species of orchids are native to Meghalaya. The endemic pitcher plant (Nepenthes khasiana) is now an endangered species. About 3,128 flowering plants have been reported from the state of which 1,236 are endemic <Khan et al., 1997>.Hooker made a huge taxonomic collection for the Kew Herbarium from Khasi and Jaintia hills and remarked the place as one of the richest spot in India, perhaps in Asia as well <Hooker, 1872-97>. The state is rich in medicinal plant wealth as well, but most of the medicinal plants have been forced to decrease their habitat range. A total of 131 RET (rare, endemic, threatened) medicinal plant species, including 36 endemic and 113 species under different threat categories are found in the state Mir et al., 2014.

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