Often taking the form of fog, these clouds hover around the
upper canopy of the forest before condensing onto the leaves of
trees and dripping onto the plants below. Understandably, the
sun has a hard time breaking through this thick veil of clouds.
This causes a slower rate of evaporation and thus provides the
plants with a bounty of life-giving moisture. This moisture
helps to promote a huge amount of biodiversity, particularly
within the type of plants known as epiphytes. These plants grow
on other plants (including trees) non-parasitically, collecting
their moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, and debris that
surround them. Common examples include lichens, orchids and
bromeliads, all of which are abundant in Monteverde. Cloud
forests also tend to host a large number of endemic species, as
their unique climates and specialized ecosystems create habitats
that are not found anywhere else on Earth. Climate change is
expected to seriously alter the nature of these forests. Models
suggest that the low-lev