Type Concept Sentence: Given the limiting growth conditions on the windswept Caribbean mountains, there is not a very clear distinction between montane forest and montane shrubland. The influence of wind, salt content in the air, waterlogged substrates in some cases, and periodic disturbance caused by hurricanes limit the development of tall, even-canopy forests and maintain in the moist, high ridges of the Caribbean islands a heterogeneous vegetation physiognomy varying from shrublands or scrubs to woodlands, to stunted forests, to forests in sites sheltered from the elements.