What is a Cloud Forest?

A cloud forest is a highland forest characterized by nearly 100% humidity throughout the year.  Here in the Santa Elena Reserve, warm North-Easterly trade winds, filled with moisture, blow in over the Atlantic. As the winds sweep up to the Continental divide, they cool and condense to form clouds, bathing the forest in a constant soft mist. The cloud forest here receives an incredible four meters of rain every year- that is almost twelve feet.

One of the most characteristic features of a cloud forest is the abundance of vegetation. Competition for growing space is so intense that trunks and branches are almost entirely covered with a variety of epiphytes, lichens, liverworts, bryophytes and mosses.  The epiphyte mats store moisture, which are especially important in the dry season (February to May).  The lush cloud forest canopy of Santa Elena is thus home to many species of insects, amphibians, and mammals which never even come down to the forest floor.