Guineo-Congolian region

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The Guineo-Congolian region is a tropical rainforest belt in Africa. It runs near the Equator, from the Atlantic coast across the Congo Basin to the Congo/Nile divide in Rwanda and Burundi. It used to be mostly continuous rainforest, but much of it has been cleared, and savanna and secondary forests are common now.

Geography and climate
- The land is mostly lowland, generally below 1,000 meters in elevation.
- It receives about 1,600–2,000 mm of rain each year.
- The forests are tall, with a dense canopy around 30 meters high and emergent trees up to 60 meters. There are several layers of trees.

Plants and trees
- Most trees are evergreen or semi-evergreen, with some species that lose their leaves.
- In wetter areas, many plants grow on the trunks and branches (epiphytes); in drier areas, this is less common.
- Large tree species you might hear about include Entandrophragma, Guarea cedrata, Guarea thompsonii, Lovoa trichilioides, Maranthes glabra, Parkia bicolor, Pericopsis elata and Petersianthus macrocarpus.
- In some parts, one tree species dominates large areas, especially legume trees from the Fabaceae family like Brachystegia laurentii, Cynometra alexandri, Gilbertiodendron dewevrei, Julbernardia seretii or Michelsonia microphylla. These monodominant stands mean one species makes up most of the canopy.
- In the Ituri region of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gilbertiodendron dewevrei can make up about 90% of the canopy in places.

Flora and boundaries
- The Guineo-Congolian flora is largely separate from the Zambezian flora, with only a few shared species. There is a transition zone where the two mix in a mosaic pattern, shaped by climate and soil, so a strict boundary is hard to draw.

Forest types found here
- Hygrophilous coastal evergreen forests: wet sites between Sierra Leone and Gabon; these forests often have many legume trees and can form pure stands.
- Mixed moist semi-evergreen forests: widespread, especially in the Congo Basin, in somewhat drier places.
- Drier peripheral semi-evergreen forests: border the mixed forests to the north and south and are more prone to fire from nearby savannas.
- Monospecific forests: patches where one tree species dominates within evergreen or semi-evergreen forests.
- Gallery forests and swamp forests: occur where conditions fit, but they usually have more open canopies.
- Short forests and scrub forests: found on rocky hills and areas with thin soils.

Remnants
- The Kakamega forest in western Kenya is the easternmost remnant of the Guineo-Congolian rainforest system.