Montane:
Of or inhabiting mountainous country.
‘montane grasslands’ [Oxford Dictionaries]
Noted in “Dry Montane Forests,” FOREST FIRE IN THE NORTHERN ROCKIES:
Tree species that thrive on sites that are relatively warm and dry (less than 20 inches of rain per year) tend to dominate the dry montane forests. These species include ponderosa pine,Douglas-fir, and western larch.
Both the mildest and coldest of these dry montane forests can support pure stands of Douglas-fir. On the warmest sites, with annual rainfall a meager 11-17 inches, ponderosa pine tends to grow in pure stands. These stands become increasingly open with decreasing elevation or increasingly dry soils, until they are so sparse that they are no longer considered forests. Ponderosa pine “woodlands,” in which trees are so few and widely spaced that none of their crowns touch, are common at lower timberline and typically mark the transition from forest to grassland or shrubland. This transition generally occurs within 1,000 ft of the valley base elevation, or between about 3200-5500 ft in western Montana (Arno 1979).
