The Could forest is a very unique ecoregion and only found above 1000 m in the central highlands of Sri Lanka.
Owing to their rich biodiversity, this region is considered a super hotspot for Flora and Fauna and is of global importance. The high humidity changes this place into an evergreen forest.
Dependent on local climate, which is affected by the distance to the sea, the exposition and the latitude (from 23°N to 25°S), the altitude varies from 500 m to 4000 m above sea level. Typically, there is a relatively small band of altitude in which the atmospheric environment is suitable for cloud forest development. This is characterized by persistent fog at the vegetation level, resulting in the reduction of direct sunlight and thus of evapotranspiration. Within cloud forests, much of the moisture available to plants arrives in the form of fog drip, where fog condenses on tree leaves and then drips onto the ground below.
The cloud forest accommodate more endemic species than the lowland rain forest.
Half of the country's flowering plants and 51 percent of the endemic vertrebrates are confined to these forests
The Cloud Forst is home to eight near-endemic mammals, and five are strict endemics.
Small mammals in Sri Lanka shows a great degree of diversity, such as rodents, shrews and bats.
The Forests around Kandy are about 935 ha and today just about 217qkm are protected
The annual rainfall can range from 500 to 10,000 mm/year and mean temperature between 8 and 20 °C.
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 cloudy forests of Sri Lanka contain many unique and threatened species. Less than 5% of Sri Lanka’s original cloud forests remain due to widespread clearing of forests for cultivation of commercial crops, primarily tea. These forests are the only home in the world for at least 20 endangered and critically endangered species, and provide critical habitat for a total of 30 species threatened with extinction.
