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and do not need the huge but- tress roots that are a feature of many lowland forest trees. Clinging to hillsides where water would otherwise run off rapidly, these forests play a vital part in stopping flash floods. Higher up still lies cloud for- est, where the mists of the mon- tane forests turn to almost per- petual cloud. These are damp,

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gloomy, green places, where the trees themselves are cloaked in ferns, and the branches droop under the weight of mosses and lichens. Animals are relatively scarce, although the central African cloud forest is famously the home of the mountain gorillas, of which only about 700 now remain. Above the cloud forest is elfin forest: a ghostly landscape of gnarled, stunted trees hardly taller than a man. This represents the rainforest’s last gasp before it gives way to the sparse vege- tation of the mountain tops. Tropical Forests versus Rainforests Other types of tropical forest share many of the features of true rainforest. Areas of sandy soil in the lowlands support heath forest. Here the trees are shorter and slower-growing than those in primary rainforest, because they do not enjoy such damp conditions. They have to find ways of getting extra water from the dry earth, and some have wide-spreading root-mats to suck up every last drop of moisture from the area round their trunks.

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Rainforests