page_title: Cloud forest
section_title: Characteristics
hierarchical_section_title: Cloud forest / Characteristics
caption_attribution_description: English: Papillaria_Cloudforest-Mt_Budawang, NSW, Australia photo taken in cool temperate cloud rainforest, in gully, east of mountain summit. Only 2 tree species in forest: Eucryphia &amp; Black Olive Berry, (Elaeocarpus holopetalus)
context_page_description: A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud cover, usually at the canopy level, formally described in the International Cloud Atlas as silvagenitus. Cloud forests often exhibit an abundance of mosses covering the ground and vegetation, in which case they are also referred to as mossy forests. Mossy forests usually develop on the saddles of mountains, where moisture introduced by settling clouds is more effectively retained.
  Other moss forests include Black Spruce/Feathermoss climax forest, with a moderately dense canopy and a forest floor of feathermosses including Hylocomium splendens, Pleurozium schreberi and Ptilium crista-castrensis. These weft-form mosses grow in boreal moss forests, and are shaped to allow the needles to fall into them rather than covering them, so they grow over the needles.
context_section_description: In comparison with lower tropical moist forests, cloud forests show a reduced tree stature combined with increased stem density and generally the lower diversity of woody plants. Trees in these regions are generally shorter and more heavily stemmed than in lower-altitude forests in the same regions, often with gnarled trunks and branches, forming dense, compact crowns. Their leaves become smaller, thicker and harder with increasing altitude. The high moisture promotes the development of a high biomass and biodiversity of epiphyte, particularly bryophytes, lichens, ferns (including filmy ferns), bromeliads and orchids. The number of endemic plants can be very high.
  An important feature of cloud forests is the tree crowns can intercept the wind-driven cloud moisture, part of which drips to the ground. This fog drip occurs when water droplets from the fog adhere to the needles or leaves of trees or other objects, coalesce into larger drops and then drop to the ground. It can be an important contribution to the hydrologic cycle.
  Due to the high water content of the soil, the reduced solar radiation and the low rates of decomposition and mineralization, the soil acidity is very high, with more humus and peat often forming the upper soil layer.
  Stadtmüller (1987) distinguishes two general types of tropical montane cloud forests:
  Areas with a high annual precipitation due to a frequent cloud cover in combination with heavy and sometimes persistent orographic rainfall; such forests have a perceptible canopy strata, a high number of epiphytes, and a thick peat layer which has a high storage capacity for water and controls the runoff;
  In drier areas with mainly seasonal rainfall, cloud stripping can amount to a large proportion of the moisture available to plants.
caption: Hanging moss in a cool temperate rainforest at Budawang National Park, Australia
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