The Blue Mountains Cloud Forest

Above the coffee belt, Jamaica's Blue Mountains rise into cool, almost constantly misted cloud forest, thick with epiphytes, tree ferns and mosses. It is one of the most botanically rich habitats in the Caribbean, and it sits in a closely studied, largely non-overlapping relationship with the farmland just below it.

What is cloud forest, and where does it start?

Cloud forest forms where mountains are high enough, and wet enough, that clouds and fog regularly wrap the canopy rather than simply passing overhead. In the Blue Mountains this is generally described as the upper montane zone, roughly 1,500 to 1,800 meters, characterized as cool, damp forest kept constantly moist by condensation from thick fog banks moving across the ridge, according to Wikipedia's account of the range. Temperature drops sharply with elevation: one estimate puts average temperatures at around 27°C near sea level and as low as 5°C at Blue Mountain Peak, a fall of more than 20 degrees across roughly 16 kilometers of horizontal distance.

What grows in the cloud forest?

The defining feature of cloud forest is what grows on other plants rather than in the ground. Canopy trees here are typically covered in epiphytes, mosses, ferns and orchids growing directly on trunks and branches, kept alive by near-constant mist rather than rainfall reaching the soil, according to Wikipedia. Tree ferns and wild ginger are common in the understory, and tank bromeliads, which hold pools of water in their leaf bases, are a conspicuous feature at this elevation. One endemic conifer, the Blue Mountain yacca (Podocarpus urbanii), is characteristic of the stunted elfin woodland found at the highest, most exposed elevations. Overall, the range is credited with a roughly 50% rate of plant endemism and more than 500 recorded species of flowering plants, figures given in Wikipedia's summary of the Blue Mountains. A fuller account of the range's plants is on plants of the Blue Mountains.

The cloud forest around Holywell and Hardwar Gap, at roughly 4,000 to 4,400 feet, is one of the more accessible places to see this habitat up close; the Oatley Trail there passes through stands of tall, epiphyte-hung tree ferns, as described on Holywell and Hardwar Gap.

An introduced tree now threatens the forest

Not everything at this elevation is native. Pittosporum undulatum, the Australian cheesewood, was introduced to Jamaica and has since spread through the upper montane forest, where it is now outcompeting native canopy trees, according to Wikipedia's account of the Blue Mountains. It is treated as one of the more significant threats to the character of the native cloud forest, a pressure distinct from, and in addition to, land use lower down the range.

How is the cloud forest protected?

The forest sits within the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park, designated in 1993 as Jamaica's first national park and covering 41,198 hectares, managed by the Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust. A 26,252-hectare core area, which includes the high cloud forest, was inscribed by UNESCO as a mixed World Heritage Site on 3 July 2015, recognized for both its biodiversity and its association with the Windward Maroons. See Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park for the fuller history of that designation.

Cloud forest and coffee farming: a shared, hedged history

Coffee has been grown on the lower and middle slopes below the cloud forest since the eighteenth century, commonly on land between roughly 3,000 and 5,500 feet, well below the misted upper montane zone. The two land uses are close neighbors rather than an overlapping one: an independent review of the World Heritage site found coffee plantations contribute to habitat fragmentation lower down, in the 750-to-1,500-meter band, while noting that forest cover higher up, closer to true cloud forest, remains comparatively intact. The same review did not treat coffee farming as a present threat to the core forest, and said most farmers value the forest above their land for the water supply and erosion control it provides, while cautioning that rising prices for Blue Mountain coffee could increase pressure to clear more forest in future. That relationship, including its history, is covered in more detail on the national park page.

Visiting the cloud forest

Holywell and the trails near Hardwar Gap offer the most accessible introduction to Blue Mountain cloud forest without a long hike. Conditions change quickly with weather and elevation, so warm, waterproof clothing is worth carrying even on a clear day, and current trail information is best confirmed with the Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust before setting out.