Monsoon forest presents a more open tree growth than the equatorial and tropical rainforests. Consequently, there is less competition among trees for light but a greater development of vegetation in the lower layers. Maximum tree heights range from 40 to 100 ft (12 to 35 m), which is less than in the equatorial rainforest. Many tree species are present and may number 30 to 40 species in a small tract. Tree trunks are massive; the bark is often thick and rough. Branching starts at comparative low level and produce large round crowns. Perhaps the most important feature of the monsoon forest is the deciduousness of most of the tree species present, e.g. the abundance of tropophytes. The shedding of leaves results from the stress of a long dry season, which occurs at time of low sun and cooler temperatures. Thus the forest in the dry season has somewhat the dormant winter aspect of deciduous forest of middle latitudes. A representative example of a monsoon forest tree is the teak wood tree (Tectona grandis).
Lianas and epiphytes are locally abundant in monsoon rainforest but are fewer and smaller than in the equatorial rainforest. Undergrowth is often a dense shrubs thicket. Where second-growth vegetation has formed, it is typically jungle. Clumps of bamboo are an important part of the vegetation in climax teakwood forest.
Perhaps the type regions of monsoon forest are in Burma (inland from the coastal tropical rainforest belt) and in Thailand and Cambodia. Large areas of deciduous and semideciduous tropical forest occur in West Africa and in central and South America, bordering the equatorial and tropical rainforests into which there is gradation. Areas of monsoon forest or related types are also described in Indonesia (especially Java and Celebes), in northern Australia, and in western Madagascar. World vegetation maps and standard reference works do not agree closely on the location and extent of the monsoon, or deciduous tropical forest areas.
The prevailing pedogenic regime of monsoon forest areas is that of laterization. Despite the dry season, a substantial water surplus is developed during the warm rainy season. Humus does not accumulate; leaching of bases and silica is the dominant soil-forming process.
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