The “El Cielo” Biosphere Reserve lies along the Tropic of Cancer in the southwestern corner of the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico. It is of great botanical and ecological interest because it includes the northern limit of tropical deciduous forest in Mexico, one of Mexico’s few localities of mesophyll cloud forest, as well as pine and oak forests and desert scrub. The flora of this Biosphere Reserve and nearby areas has been relatively well-studied but no comprehensive review of this literature exists.
Perrine and Gorchov provide citations and summaries (in English) of 121 works on or relating to the flora, plant ecology, or general biota of the “El Cielo” Biosphere Reserve and surrounding areas. These include 68 journal articles (38 Spanish, 28 English, 1 French, 1 German), 15 books (8 English, 7 Spanish), 4 doctoral dissertations (English), 4 Masters theses (3 English, 1 Spanish), 7 undergraduate theses (Spanish), 18 symposium papers (1 English, 17 Spanish), and five other manuscripts (2 English, 3 Spanish). They further describe any species lists and taxonomic keys in each work.