Flora
The montane grasslands are a mixed habitat of grassland, heath and bog that is home to a rich collection of Alpine and other plants adpated to the cold climate, snow and harsh dry winters. The ecoregion can be sub-categorised in to montane (between 1,100 m and 1,400 m), subalpine (between 1,400 m and 1,850 m), and alpine (normally above 1,850 m) bands. At lower elevations a number of different types of eucalyptus tree including mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans) grow on the rich soils of the mountain valleys while the trees of the subalpine elevations are snow gum (Eucalyptus pauciflora) and black sallee (Eucalyptus stellulatea) with a ground cover of heath shrubs. The tree line is between 1600 and 1800m and above that the alpine flora consists predominantly of species of Poa (snow grass), usually associated with closed and open shrublands of orites, Grevillea, Prostanthera, and Hovea. At the highest alpine elevations, these mosaics may give way to a fjeldmark or, in zones where snow lies into the summer months, to a snow patch community. Sphagnum bog communities of Sphagnum cristatum and Empodisma minus (spreading rope-rush) occur in stream beds or other low-lying areas.
The occurrence of grasslands represents an ecological climax condition, the culmination of a cycle of colonisation of bare ground by woody shrubs which provide protection for seedlings of grass species. The shrubs senesce after 40 to 50 years, leaving a closed canopy.
Read more about this topic: Australian Alps Montane Grasslands
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