Giant heather forest (of the genus Erica) in the Rwenzori Mountains. The trees have stout, contorted limbs ornately encrusted with trailing beard moss and cushions of moss. They look like bonsai plants gone mad. The local people call this vegetation "the forest of the beards". Over the giant heather zone begins the alpine zone dominated by giant herbs. Under the giant heather forest there is a bamboo zone. The lowest elevations are covered by the dense mountain rainforest.