01-30-2020, 06:59 PM
Re my level of relevant knowledge: As I replied to U.N.E.’s player when she made a similar remark (in a TG, not in this forum), I’ve probably had longer in which to accumulate that knowledge… My next birthday will be my 60th…
Re conifers: People thinking about trees in mountainous areas tend to think of conifers as the default possibility, but that isn’t as frequent a case in the tropics. What conifers basically evolved to cope with (and still tend to have an advantage over [most sorts of] ‘broadleaf’ trees at) isn’t heights or slopes, or even the colder conditions that accompany high altitude (although some types of conifer have evolved shapes to help them shed snow from their branches before it gets heavy enough to cause breakages…), it’s relatively dry conditions. This can give them an advantage on mountainsides because the typical combination of relatively steep slopes and relatively thin soils there means that a lot of the rainwater that falls tends to escape downhill before trees can use it, but when you’re on slopes that receive ‘tropical rainforest’ levels of rainfall anyway then that’s less important. Your inland ‘Montane’ forests might be predominantly coniferous, but the two coastal blocks and the fringes of the block of mountains closest to your land’s north-eastern corner are likely to have significant proportion of broadleafs — and cycads, and even (especially in any patches of ‘cloud forest’ that are present) tree-ferns — as well.
Re conifers: People thinking about trees in mountainous areas tend to think of conifers as the default possibility, but that isn’t as frequent a case in the tropics. What conifers basically evolved to cope with (and still tend to have an advantage over [most sorts of] ‘broadleaf’ trees at) isn’t heights or slopes, or even the colder conditions that accompany high altitude (although some types of conifer have evolved shapes to help them shed snow from their branches before it gets heavy enough to cause breakages…), it’s relatively dry conditions. This can give them an advantage on mountainsides because the typical combination of relatively steep slopes and relatively thin soils there means that a lot of the rainwater that falls tends to escape downhill before trees can use it, but when you’re on slopes that receive ‘tropical rainforest’ levels of rainfall anyway then that’s less important. Your inland ‘Montane’ forests might be predominantly coniferous, but the two coastal blocks and the fringes of the block of mountains closest to your land’s north-eastern corner are likely to have significant proportion of broadleafs — and cycads, and even (especially in any patches of ‘cloud forest’ that are present) tree-ferns — as well.