Terre. Europeans generally settled here, avoiding the eastern part of the Kanakas. New Caledonia's marine environment is characterized by the surrounding New Caledonia Barrier Reef. Dry forests The west coast of New Caledonia has a drier climate and different habitat from the rain forests that cover most of the island. The plant life of the west coast consists of nearly 400 species, including endemic species such as the unique Captaincookia margaretae, and Oryza neocaledonica, an endangered wild rice. This coast is home to endangered animals including the New Caledonia wattled bat (Chalinolobus neocaledonicus) and the ornate flying fox. Dry forests are vulnerable to fire and human intervention. The original vegetation was cleared for farming, especially cattle ranching, leaving only two percent of the original dry forest, in isolated patches, none of them protected. Urban areas on the west coast include New Caledonia's cosmopolitan capital Nouméa, while there are farms and farming communities all along the coast. Rainforest Mountain forests are mainly located on the lee slopes, where communities are evergreen species of laurel forest. The forests are typically evergreen because the mild climate allows for continuous biological activity. In the continuously-mild conditions, the number of species that share the canopy is high. This diversity earns them the name "rainforest", as opposed to "woods" ("Mediterranean wood", "temperate wood", etc.), implying canopies dominated by one or a few tree species. In this sense, the laurel forest is a transitional formation between temperate forests and rainforests. Many tree species do not have a coordinated timing of shedding their leaves, flowering or fruit ripening, with phases occurring at any time of year. The woody plants including conifers of the families Podocarpaceae, Araucariaceae and the subfamily Callitroideae of Cupressaceae and angiosperms such as families Erythroxylaceae, Epacridaceae, Proteaceae, Griseliniaceae, Cunoniaceae, Atherospermataceae, and Winteraceae, and genera such as southern beech (Nothofagus). Many other families of flowering plants and ferns inhabit the forest, including some tree fern genera also known from Canadian fossils, including Dicksonia and Cyathea (Cyathea novae-caledoniae), or the tallest in the world, Cyathea intermedia. Amborella has emerged as of great interest to plant systematists because molecular phylogenetic analyses consistently place it as the sister group to all other flowering plants. There are many epiphytes and large, hanging mossy formations, giving a surreal and ghostly effect. Moisture is abundant, creating a moist, hygrophilous environment with great visual appeal, in the form of mists, sprays, ponds and