CLOUD FOREST

also called montane rainforest, vegetation of tropical mountainous regions in which the rainfall is often heavy and persistent condensation occurs because of cooling of moisture-laden air currents deflected upward by the mountains. The trees in a cloud forest are typically short and crooked. Mosses, climbing ferns, lichens, and epiphytes (air plants, such as orchids) form thick blankets on the trunks and branches of the trees. Begonias, ferns, and many other herbaceous plants may grow to exceptionally large size in clearings. A forest of extremely stunted, moss-covered trees that occurs in tropical or temperate mountainous regions is sometimes known as an elfin woodland.