Karst Forest Mogotes and Cenotes - Code: Ne4C

It may seem incongruous that the one habitat contains both hills and sinkholes, but these microhabitats are part of the one system of karst development, where soluble minerals such as calcium carbonate and gypsum are removed from rocks such as  limestone (a calcareous sedimentary rock), dolomite (a calcareous-magnesium sedimentary rock), and very rarely not in Mesoamerica sandstone (a silica rich sedimentary rock). The minerals are chemically weathered (broken down) and eroded (removed) by water percolating the rocks to create underground caves. In the lowlands these caves can connect to underwater flows that may move many feet per day, and can join each other, and sometimes falling in to cause sinkholes that are linked to each other through the flood cave system called Cenotes. The sinkholes can have These large open-water pools over 100 feet wide, though most cenotes have flooded soil and vegetation at the base, and look like sunken forests up to 50 ft, 15m deep.
When this process occurs in higher areas,  the base level of water is much lower,and most importantly, the rock system has a lot of vertical jointing (cracks) that allows water to percolate quickly, the erosion of the cave system can become extreme with rectangular blocks of the overlaying rock falling the the base and rolled away. When most of the original level of the landscape has been removed, only the towers are called Mogotes in the Caribbean. In the case of the Cenotes, the vegetation is governed by the underground hydrological cycle, and in the Mogotes, the vegetation is determined by the edaphic nature of the soils caused by the calcarious bedrock; in neither of these environments is the climate a primary factor in the vegetation development.
In Mesoamerica, and particularly in the Yucatan, the general landscape around the top of the cenote can have CARIBBEAN THORNSCRUB or MESOAMERICAN SEMI-EVERGREEN FOREST, though the most common vegetation at the top of the sinkholes is dominated by YUCATAN DRY DECIDUOUS FOREST with small trees and shrubs are dominated  by the “kapok” tree Pochote (Ceiba aesculifolia), with Gumbo-limbo (Bursera simaruba), Spanish cedar (Cedrela odorata), and Spanish elm (Cordia alliodora). The sides and base of the sinkholes have more in common with vegetation typical of the PETEN SWAMP FOREST, so in the driest areas of the Yucatan, the difference between the normal ground layer and the sinkhole forest can be very stark, with tall trees that have mainly been removed for agriculture at the surface, such as sapodilla  (Manilkara zapota), Honduran mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), campeche logwood (Haematoxylum campechianum), black poisonwood (Metopium brownei), and (Yax-nik Vitex gaumeri), but they generally much shorten and thinner than they are in in the swamp forest, rarely being over 50 ft. (50m). Because of the lack of light getting to the base of the cenote and the  more open canopy of the forest, the understory and ground cover is much thick than in normal swamp forest, with trees such as West Indian elm (Guazuma ulmifolia) ,Pimientillo (Xilopia frutescens), and  Dysentery-bark (Simarouba glauca). 
Karst formations are also an important feature in MESOAMERICAN CLOUD FOREST in central and southern Mexico.
In the Mogotes, the forest forms on lithosols (poorly developed soils) on the slopes or cliffs of  the dolomite and limestone towers. In these steeper and drier conditions the trees have to adapt to harsh conditions of water scarcity and nutrient deficiency, with coping mechanisms of at least one of being deciduous, having sclerophyllous leaves, having microphyllous leaves, being pachycaulesque (bottle shaped)  trunks, or being a cactus. The canopy on the very open and usually below 30 ft, sometimes up to 50ft tall, but at the base of the slopes, those same trees can have a canopy of around 60 ft (20m) and can be  covered by mosses and epiphytes
There are many endemic species throughout the Caribbean, but in Cuba, the forest  is dominated  by Cuban Frangipanni Plumeria emarginata, acerola cherry Malpighia roigiana,Cattley guava Psidium vicentinum, Bastard Lime Trichilia havanensis, and Cuban Velvetseed Guettarda calcicola,. The cliffs are dominated by Agave tubulata, the the cycad Cork palm (Microcycas calocoma). Palms such as, Palmita de Jumagua ( Hemithrinax ekmanian) and the  brittle thatch palm  (Thrinax punctulata) grow in better watered areas.