Surprising to casual tourists, as well as a few plant biologists, is the presence of grassland savanna over large portions of the Mosquitia. The grasslands, dotted with stands of Caribbean pine, receive the same amount of rainfall as the adjacent rainforest and are often submerged during the wettest parts of the year.
A drier type of savanna supporting grasses and occasional stands of acacia and cactus covers parts of Olancho and El Paraíso. Biologists believe these areas were originally forested.