montane
Part of speech: adj
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: biology
ecology
natural-sciences
Etymology: The adjective is derived from Latin montānus (“of or pertaining to a mountain”). Synchronically, it can be seen to have the suffix English -ane (variant of -an (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives)). Montānus is derived from mōns (“mount, mountain”) (from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to stand out, to tower”)) + -ānus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’).
The noun is probably derived from the adjective.
Inflected forms:
form: more montane
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most montane
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: montanes
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Of, inhabiting, or growing in mountain areas; specifically, the cool, moist upland slopes below the timberline.
pos: adj
examples: This plant evidently occupies, like V. sabulosa and V. Curtisii, an intermediate position between lutea and tricolor; and, as I have indicated already, it is a montane, not an agrestal plant. Jordan compares it to V. vivariensis, which is also a montane plant, between V. tricolor and V. lutea.
[T]he upper part of these peaks is very bare and monotonous, and almost destitute of damp precipice; and I know of only seven Montane species that grow there above 650 yards.
With a like lower limit of level there are found on hills numerous Sub-alpine or Montane plants, which do not grow in the North. We must therefore divide the Northern zone also into three parts—1, Northern (restricted); 2, Northern-montane; and 3, Montane only.
The montane region in its lower belts has, at the equator, a still tropical although not equatorial character, but near the two tropics it has from the first a temperate character. The difference between the equatorial rain-forest of the basal region on the one hand, and the tropical forest of the lower montane region on the other, is confined to the systematic composition. In temperate montane formations, on the contrary, the lower temperature is reflected in purely oecological characteristics in the plant-life and impresses upon the formations the stamp of those of higher latitudes.
The temperatures are extremely constant and low as compared with those in the lowlands, although very rarely so low as to make frost possible, and the rainfall is abundant at all seasons. The Blue Mountain Region is, therefore, a tropical montane region, in the terms of [Andreas Franz Wilhelm] Schimper, lying above the hot lowlands and not attaining to a sufficient altitude for alpine influences to come into full play.
I[ndri] indri is a forest species, found in humid montane rain forest [...]. It has been observed as high as 1,300 m elevation [...].
The gorilla's ancestor had probably taken to the montane forests of a string of central African volcanoes, cutting itself off from the genes of other apes.
The key to sustainable tropical montane cloud forest land management lies in actively involving local rural populations in decision-taking processes relating to research, training, development and conservation strategies and initiatives.
At lower elevations, montane oak forests typically grade into cove forests, oak forests, or montane pine forests and woodlands. At higher elevations and in more protected sites, northern hardwood forests replace the montane oak forests. Montane oak forests may also grade directly into spruce-fir forests on south-facing slopes.
gloss: An animal or a plant of a montane habitat.
pos: noun
examples: The true Montanes comprise those species, of unmistakably Alpine, Scottish, or Highland type, which not merely with us but elsewhere throughout Britain are characteristic of high latitudes and altitudes—of mountain regions only.
The wintergreens, and northern montanes such as Linnaea have their stronghold in these pinewoods and some of their rarity may be due to the reduction in the extent of the forest.
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