El Yunque

1.  How many rain forest zones (or Forest Types) are in El Yunque?

El Yunque has four forest zones. Here are the four of them:

The Tabonuco Forest is located at an elevation of up to 2,000 feet and the trees can grow up to 115 to 125 feet tall. The trees that are most found here are the Tabonuco and Ausubo trees, but you can also find plenty of Yagrumo , Guaraguao, Laurel Sabino and giant ferns.

The Palo Colorado Forest occurs at about 1970 ft-2950 ft. Here you can find many trees such as Caimitillo, Caimitillo Verde and Palo Colorado.

The Palama Sierra Forest is found at altitudes over 1958 ft. As its name describes, the tree that is most found here is the Sierra Palm.

The “Bosque En Las Nubes” is located 2500 ft above sea level and contains the highest mountain tops in El Yunque. The trees here don’t grow that tall; only about 12 ft.!  This area is usually very windy and the earth is saturated with water. The most common tree species are Némoco, Roble de Sierra, Lomoncillo Guayabota and Camasey.

2. How much rain falls in El Yunque?

 At El Yunque the average rainfall is 200 inches per year. Most of these rains fall on springtime and autumn.

3. How much water runs off the rain forest in a year?

In El Yunque, about 100 billion gallons of water runs off this rainforest in a year.