Cuba’s ecosystems tout the most impressive species diversity of any Caribbean island. Despite four centuries of devastating deforestation, extensive tracts remain cloaked in a dozen shades of tropical green. Coastal mangrove and wetland preserves, dry forest, scrubby pine forest, pockets of rainforest and even montane cloud forest, almost desert-dry terrain supporting cacti, and other wild places are strewn like isles within an isle.
Cuba boasts more than 6,700 higher-plant species, of which some 3,180 are endemic and about 950 are endangered.