Tierra templada (Spanish for temperate land) is a pseudo-climatological term used in Latin America to refer to places which are either located in the tropics at a moderately high elevation or are marginally outside the astronomical tropics, producing a somewhat cooler overall climate than that found in the tropical lowlands, the zone of which is known as the tierra caliente.
In countries situated close to the equator, the tierra templada typically has an elevation span of between 750 and 1,850 metres (2,460 and 6,070 ft).[1][2][3][4][5] These thresholds become lower as the latitude increases. The Peruvian geographer Javier Pulgar Vidal used following altitudes:
Tierra templada has mean average temperature between 18 and 22 °C (64 and 72 °F).[1] Coffee is grown extensively as a cash crop, with grains such as wheat and corn being cultivated for subsistence purposes - in contrast to the warmer tierra caliente, where tropical fruits predominate.[1] Xalapa in Mexico is an example of a city that lies in the tierra templada,[7] having a subtropical highland climate under the Köppen climate classification.[citation needed]
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