Montane grasslands and shrublands is a biome defined by the World Wildlife Fund. The biome includes high altitude grasslands and shrublands around the world. The term "montane" in the name of the biome refers to "high altitude", rather than the ecological term which denotes the region below treeline.
Montane grasslands and shrublands located above the tree line are commonly known as alpine tundra, which occurs in mountain regions around the world. Below the tree line are subalpine and montane grasslands and shrublands. Stunted subalpine forests are known as krummholz, and occur just below the tree line, where harsh, windy conditions and poor soils create dwarfed and twisted forests of slow-growing trees.
Montane grasslands and shrublands, particularly in subtropical and tropical regions, often evolved as virtual islands, separated from other montane regions by warmer, lower elevation regions, and are frequently home to many distinctive and endemic plants which evolved in response to the cool, wet climate and abundant tropical sunlight. Characteristic plants of these habitats display adaptations such as rosette structures, waxy surfaces, and hairy leaves. A unique feature of many wet tropical montane regions is the presence of giant rosette plants from a variety of plant families, such as Lobelia (Afrotropic), Puya (Neotropic), Cyathea (New Guinea), and Argyroxiphium (Hawaii).
The most extensive montane grasslands and shrublands occur in the Neotropic Páramo of the Andes Mountains. This biome also occurs in the mountains of east and central Africa, Mount Kinabalu of Borneo, highest elevations of the Western Ghats in South India and the Central Highlands of New Guinea.
Where conditions are drier, one finds montane grasslands, savannas, and woodlands, like the Ethiopian Highlands, and montane steppes, like the steppes of the Tibetan Plateau.