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{{Short description|Plants endemic to Belize}}
The '''flora of Belize''' is highly diverse by regional standards, given the country's small geographical extent. Situated on the Caribbean coast of northern [[Central America]] the flora and vegetation have been intimately intertwined with Belize's history. The nation itself grew out of British timber extraction activities from the 17th century onwards, at first for [[logwood]] (''Haematoxylum campechianum'') and later for [[mahogany]] (''[[Swietenia macrophylla]]''), fondly called "red gold" because of its high cost and was much sought after by European aristocracy. Central America generally is thought to have gained much of it characteristic flora during the "[[Great American Interchange|Great American interchange]]" during which time South American elements migrated north after the geological closure of the [[isthmus of Panama]].<ref>Gentry, A.H. 1982. Neotropical floristic diversity: phytogeographical connections between Central and South America, Pleistocene climatic fluctuations, or an accident of the Andean orogeny? Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 69, 557-593</ref> Few Amazonian elements penetrate as far north as Belize and in [[species composition]] the forests of [[Belize]] are most similar to the forests of the [[Petén Department|Petén]] ([[Guatemala]]) and the [[Yucatán]] ([[Mexico]]).<ref>Brewer, S. et al. 2003
==Vegetation types==
The vegetation of Belize was first systematically surveyed in the 1930s.<ref>Standley, P.C. and Record, S.J. 1936. The forests and flora of British Honduras. Fieldiana, Bot. 12: 1-432</ref> Recent mapping projects have employed the following principal terrestrial and coastal categories of native vegetation:<ref>
* '''lowland broad-leaved forest'''. This is a diverse forest type in Belize, now greatly reduced in extent by clearance for agricultural land. It includes such tropical tree species as ''[[Simarouba glauca]]'', ''[[Calophyllum brasiliense]]'', ''[[Terminalia amazonia]]'' and ''[[Pterocarpus officinalis]]''.
[[Image:Acoeloraphe.JPG|thumb|right|''[[
* '''lowland savanna'''. This is an important vegetation type in northern Belize, in which scattered trees occur in "short grass" (actually mainly sedges). Savanna is maintained as open vegetation by a combination of wet-season flooding, dry-season drought and fire. Typical trees include: ''[[
* '''lowland pine forest''' or pine savanna (open forest mainly composed of [[Pinus caribaea|''Pinus caribaea var. hondurensis'']] with shrubs such as the rough-leaved "sandpaper tree" (''Curatella americana'').
[[Image:Curatella.JPG|thumb|''[[Curatella americana]]'', the sandpaper tree of the pine forest.]]
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A [[remote sensing]] study conducted by the Water Center for the Humid Tropics of Latin America and the Caribbean (CATHALAC) and NASA, in collaboration with the Forest Department and the Land Information Centre (LIC) of the Government of Belize's Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MNRE), and published in August 2010 revealed that Belize's forest cover in early 2010 was approximately 62.7%, down from 75.9% in late 1980.<ref name="Servir"/>
A similar study
Belize had a 2018 [[Forest Landscape Integrity Index]] mean score of 6.15/10, ranking it 85th globally out of 172 countries.<ref name="FLII-Supplementary">{{cite journal|last1=Grantham|first1=H. S.|last2=Duncan|first2=A.|last3=Evans|first3=T. D.|last4=Jones|first4=K. R.|last5=Beyer|first5=H. L.|last6=Schuster|first6=R.|last7=Walston|first7=J.|last8=Ray|first8=J. C.|last9=Robinson|first9=J. G.|last10=Callow|first10=M.|last11=Clements|first11=T.|last12=Costa|first12=H. M.|last13=DeGemmis|first13=A.|last14=Elsen|first14=P. R.|last15=Ervin|first15=J.|last16=Franco|first16=P.|last17=Goldman|first17=E.|last18=Goetz|first18=S.|last19=Hansen|first19=A.|last20=Hofsvang|first20=E.|last21=Jantz|first21=P.|last22=Jupiter|first22=S.|last23=Kang|first23=A.|last24=Langhammer|first24=P.|last25=Laurance|first25=W. F.|last26=Lieberman|first26=S.|last27=Linkie|first27=M.|last28=Malhi|first28=Y.|last29=Maxwell|first29=S.|last30=Mendez|first30=M.|last31=Mittermeier|first31=R.|last32=Murray|first32=N. J.|last33=Possingham|first33=H.|last34=Radachowsky|first34=J.|last35=Saatchi|first35=S.|last36=Samper|first36=C.|last37=Silverman|first37=J.|last38=Shapiro|first38=A.|last39=Strassburg|first39=B.|last40=Stevens|first40=T.|last41=Stokes|first41=E.|last42=Taylor|first42=R.|last43=Tear|first43=T.|last44=Tizard|first44=R.|last45=Venter|first45=O.|last46=Visconti|first46=P.|last47=Wang|first47=S.|last48=Watson|first48=J. E. M.|title=Anthropogenic modification of forests means only 40% of remaining forests have high ecosystem integrity - Supplementary Material|journal=Nature Communications|volume=11|issue=1|year=2020|page=5978|issn=2041-1723|doi=10.1038/s41467-020-19493-3|pmid=33293507|pmc=7723057|doi-access=free}}</ref>
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Belize's relative mangrove cover declined by 2% from 1980–2010, and in that period, under 4,000 acres of mangroves had been cleared, although clearing of mangroves near Belize's main coastal settlements (e.g. [[Belize City]] and San Pedro) was relatively high. The rate of loss of Belize's mangroves - at 0.07% per year between 1980 and 2010 - was much lower than Belize's overall rate of forest clearing (0.6% per year between 1980 and 2010).<ref>Cherrington, E.A., Ek, E., Cho, P., Howell, B.F., Hernandez, B.E., Anderson, E.R., Flores, A.I., Garcia, B.C., Sempris, E., and D.E. Irwin. 2010. "Forest Cover and Deforestation in Belize: 1980-2010." Water Center for the Humid Tropics of Latin America and the Caribbean. Panama City, Panama. 42 pp. {{cite web|url=http://www.servir.net/servir_bz_forest_cover_1980-2010.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2011-04-29 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130729135101/http://www.servir.net/servir_bz_forest_cover_1980-2010.pdf |archive-date=2013-07-29 }}</ref>
== Trees ==
As well as logwood (''[[Haematoxylon campechianum]]'') and mahogany (''[[Swietenia macrophylla]]'') two other important Belizean timber trees of note are the Santa Maria (''[[Calophyllum antillanum]]'') and cedar (''[[Cedrela mexicana]]''). Other economically important trees include cotton tree or kapok (''[[Ceiba pentandra
==Orchids==
Belize has a rich array (some 300 species) of native orchids<ref>{{Cite web |last=Green |first=Kim |date=10 February 2012 |title=Belize Flora (and fauna) |url=https://aviatrixkim.com/2012/02/10/belize-flora-and-fauna/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200925193806/https://aviatrixkim.com/2012/02/10/belize-flora-and-fauna/ |archive-date=25 September 2020 |access-date=15 November 2023 |website=The Greenery}}</ref> including [[Encyclia cochleata|''Encyclia cochleata var. cochleata'']], the so-called "black orchid".<ref>Williams, L.O. (1956). An enumeration of the Orchidaceae of Central
==Palms==
Belizean vegetation is characterized by numerous species of [[Arecaceae|palms]] including the palmettos of the savanna, [[silver palmetto]] (''[[Schippia concolor]]''), palmetto (''[[
==See also==
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