Horton Plains National Park | Montane Cloud Forest | Sri Lanka The Knuckles Mountain Range lies in central Sri Lanka, in the Districts of Matale and Kandy. The diverse vegetation of Sinharaja provides habitats to a wide array of fauna. These forests are rich in quality hardwood species suitable for sawn timber and for this reason and for agricultural expansion, they have been clear-felled in the past and are now mostly restricted to protected areas.Compared with Sri Lanka’s rain forests, these forests do not have very high levels of endemism. They have rain during the southwest monsoon and constitutes the lowland rain forests up to an elevation about 900 meters. Woody lianas form an intricate network inside the forest area. Fourteen mangroves species and 12 associated species have been recorded. Two endemic plants are present Very broadly, based on elevation, climate, plant composition and degree of disturbance, six types of grassland ecosystems are recognized in Sri Lanka. In lower elevations, at altitudes ranging 1000–1500 m, submontane forests occur; those forests account for 1.04 percent of the nation's area, totalling 65,793.3 ha.

Sri Lanka's montane forests are located above 1220 m. The montane rain forests cover 3099.5 ha in total, or 0.05 percent of Sri Lanka's total area. Conifers, in particular, often form important emergents, but on Sri Lanka this role is mainly played by endemic species of These forests provide an ideal habitat for many animals including many mammals Leopard (Elephants once roamed in Sri Lanka’s Cloud forests, where they formed tunnel-shaped paths through the undergrowth of mainly These high altitude forests are the source of almost all Sri Lanka’s major rivers.

Mammals like the Leopard (When observing the climate of the rainforests, it does provide the ideal conditions for tropical evergreen forest tree species. Therefore, its floristic richness is much less, and consequently its faunal diversity as well.Sambhur, wild boar and black-naped hare feed in these grasslands at night but rest in the adjacent forests during the day.

Inselbergs are rocky outcrops in a flat landscape. They are characterized by monsoon forests and thorn scrub lands. These forests have a relatively sparse undergrowth but are rich in epiphytes and lianas. These forests are found in the mountain tops, such as Pidurutalagala, Kikilimana, Meepilimana, Agrabopaththalawa, Adam's Peak and Hakgala. As the wet lowland forests transform into sub-montane and montane forests, there is a progressive decline in canopy height, and at the highest elevations above 2000 m, unique pygmy forests may occur. The Sri Lanka Montane Rain Forests [IM0155] represents the montane and submontane moist forests above 1,000 m in the central massif and in the Knuckles Mountain Range to the northeast. Epiphytes are those plants that hang on to a big tree, which is its host.

Most of the soil groups that can be found from rainforest is Red Yellow Podzolic Soils with clearly distinguishable horizons that vary with the soil depth. Isolated patches can also be found on Knuckles, Namunukula and Haputale.The hot air of the lowlands rise during the morning hours and condense creating huge clouds, which become so heavy that they result in afternoon rains. The strong seasonality in rainfall has prompted these forests to be referred to as monsoonal forests.Topographically, the ecoregion is flat, except for scattered inselbergs. Their structure is also less complex with all trees more or less arranged in a single layer. The largest single expanse occurs as a crescent extending from Siripada to Pidurutalagala (across the Nuwara, Eliya and Horton plains). The grassland/forest complex provides them an ideal system for survival.

The dominant trees are Dun, Keena (The submontane forests in the central massif are dominated by a The tropical montane forests of Sri Lanka occur above 1500 m in the Central Highlands and Knuckles mountains, but their best development can be seen above 1800 m, and crown the highest mountains and plateaus of Sri Lanka. While the tall (1.5 m) tussock grass A mangrove is a swampy area found in the costal areas and at river mouths. There is a marked difference in floristic composition and physiognomy against the sub montane forests of middle elevation.

There is a marked difference in floristic composition and physiognomy against the sub montane forests of middle elevation. These forests are dominated by Palu (The scrub and regenerating forests are characterized by The appearance of these forests differs seasonally and depicts an annual cyclical variation in floristic diversity of the ground vegetation.