The main plant communities of the Northern Triangle temperate forests are broadleaf forests and mixed forests. The forests are diverse, blending plants characteristic of the tropical floras of the Eastern Himalayas with those of Assam, the Indian subcontinent and Indochina and the temperate floras of the Himalayas and China and even some relict plants of the ancient continent of Gondwana. Furthermore the Northern Triangle Temperate forests have been little explored by scientists since the work of Frank Kingdon-Ward in the 1920s and 1930s and their biodiversity is likely underestimated.