Pine Forest

Pine forest occurs on parts of Luzon and Mindoro where fires occur fairly frequently (yearly up to about once every 20 years), from about 900 m up to 2500 m, usually on rather steep slopes. The understory is nearly pure grass in places where fires burn every few years, with no humus and little leaf-litter. Bracken and other ferns are common in places with less frequent fires, and as fires occur still less frequently, small, native woody plants begin to invade. If no fires burn for several decades, broad-leafed plants gradually continue the pattern of plant succession, leading to the return of the montane or mossy broad-leafed forest that occurred originally, with no further recruitment of young pines.