2,600 to 3,500 m (9,000 to 10,300ft)
The wet forest landscape opens abruptly above the bamboo zone, presenting a vista of parkland laced with brooks, rocky outcrops and magnificent stands of East African Rosewood (Hagenia abbysinica) - massive trees that are centuries old with broad trunks and a spreading umbrella shaped crown. It has large pale leaf rosettes which drift to the ground like parachutes, reddish bark and pendulous red inflorescences. Its crooked branches are festooned with mosses and hanging old man's beard. These trees are scattered amongst glades together with St. John's Wort ( Hypericum keniense).
| This forest also has groups of a smaller trees, Nidorella
arborea. In this
zone there occurs knee high stands of Alchemillia argrophylla and johnstoni.
Wildflowers include red hot pokers, true violets, giant forest lobelia and
bracken.
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