Basic Knowledge of Monsoon Forest

Monsoon Forest are open woodland in tropical areas that have a long dry season followed by a season of heavy rainfall. The trees in a monsoon forest usually shed their leaves during the dry season and come into leaf at the start of the rainy season. Many lianas (woody vines) and herbaceous epiphytes (air plants, such as orchids are present. Monsoon forests are especially well developed in Southeast Asia and are typified by tall teak trees and thickets of bamboo.

Maximum tree heights range from 40 to 100 ft (12 to 35 m), which is less than in the equatorial rainforest. Many tree species are present and may number 30 to 40 species in a small tract. Tree trunks are massive; the bark is often thick and rough. Branching starts at comparative low level and produce large round crowns. Perhaps the most important feature of the monsoon forest is the deciduousness of most of the tree species present, e.g. the abundance of tropophytes. The shedding of leaves results from the stress of a long dry season, which occurs at time of low sun and cooler temperatures. Thus the forest in the dry season has somewhat the dormant winter aspect of deciduous forest of middle latitudes. A representative example of a monsoon forest tree is the teak wood tree