What Kind Of Plants And Animals Live In The Tropical Rainforest
In the previous article nosotros covered plants in the tropical rainforest. On this page, yous'll observe a tropical rainforest plants listing, with pictures and data on individual plant species.
This commodity is part of our Rainforest Series.
- Download free rainforest worksheets hither: Rainforest Worksheets.
- Yous can view a huge list of rainforest animals on this page: Rainforest Animals: The Ultimate Guide
Tropical Rainforest Plants Information
The world's tropical rainforests are home to an incredible number of plants. The Amazon Rainforest alone provides a habitat for over forty,000 constitute species!
The hot, humid climate of the world'south tropical regions provide ideal weather condition for plant life.
However, even in a rainforest at that place is competition for sunlight and nutrients; plants have to adapt to detect their place in the ecosystem.
In society to do this, some plants grow faster, some have bigger leaves, and others evolve better defences confronting predators.
Equally we'll discover, some rainforest plants take even co-evolved with animals, forming relationships that are beneficial for both.
In this list of tropical rainforest plants, some of our chosen species are very big, some are very beautiful … and some are fifty-fifty dangerous (if you're an insect)!
Tropical Rainforest Plants Listing
Epiphytes
Epiphytes are plants that live on other plants. They don't have roots in the footing, and have evolved diverse strategies for obtaining water and nutrients. Sometimes a single tree tin can be home to many different epiphyte species, together weighing several tonnes. Epiphytes even grow on other epiphytes!
Many of the plants in this tropical rainforest plants list are epiphytes.
Bromeliads
The most common epiphytes are bromeliads. Bromeliads are flowering plants whose long leaves are arranged in a rosette. They adhere themselves to the host tree by wrapping their roots effectually its branches. Their leaves aqueduct h2o into a cardinal 'tank'.
A bromeliad's tank is a habitat in itself. The water is used not but by the institute, only also by many rainforest animals. Birds and mammals beverage from the tank. Tadpoles grow there, and insects lay their eggs in the swimming.
Orchids
There are many types of rainforest orchid, and we'll look at some private species below. Orchids in the rainforest are often epiphytes. Some have particularly adjusted roots that enable them to capture water and nutrients from the air. Other orchids accept roots that spread out over the branch of the host tree, capturing water without needing to bury into the footing.
Açai Palm (Euterpe precatoria)
The açai is thought to exist the almost common tree in the Amazon Rainforest. Despite this, it yet makes up merely 1% (5 billion) of the 390 billion trees in the region. Its fruit is edible, and an important food in the Amazon region.
Carnauba Palm (Copernicia prunifera)
This Brazilian palm tree is also known as the 'tree of life' considering information technology has so many uses. Its fruit are eaten, and its wood used in edifice. Information technology is best known as the source of 'carnauba wax', which comes from the tree'south leaves.
Carnauba wax is used in car polish, lipstick, lather, and in many other products. Information technology is fifty-fifty rubbed on surfboards to aid them skid through the water faster!
Rattan Palm
There are over 600 species of rattan palm. They grow in African, Asian and Australasian rainforests. Rattans are vines; long plants which are unable to support themselves. Instead, they wrap themselves around other trees. Hooked spines on their stems allow them to climb up the other copse towards the sunlight. Rattans are harvested and used in furniture construction.
Walking Palm (Socratea exorrhiza)
Walking palms grow in the tropical rainforests of Central and South America. They have stilt roots that projection out of the trunk above the ground (see our Plants In The Tropical Rainforest article to find out more virtually stilt roots).
It was once thought that these roots enabled the copse to 'walk' to a new position if it was knocked over by another tree. Scientists at present think that the roots simply improve the tree's stability.
Amazon water lily (Victoria amazonica)
The Amazon water lily is an aquatic found that grows in the lakes and rivers of Due south American rainforests. Its huge leaves can exist upwardly to 3 metres (9.eight ft.) in bore. At that place are rows of precipitous spines on the undersides of the leaves. These deter rainforest animals such as manatees from eating them.
Rubber Tree (Hevea brasiliensis)
The safety tree, which was beginning plant in the Amazon Rainforest, is now also grown in tropical areas in Asia and Africa. The tree is harvested for latex, a milky fluid found in vessels in the tree'due south bark. These vessels are opened and the latex which runs out is nerveless in buckets. This is known as 'rubber tapping'.
Latex is used to make natural rubber. Natural rubber has many uses, including machine tyres, hoses, pulley belts and vesture.
At that place are over 1.ix one thousand thousand rubber copse growing in the Amazon Rainforest.
Bougainvillea
A colourful entry to the tropical rainforest plants listing, Bougainvilleas are native to Due south America. They are grown equally ornamental plants in other areas. Bougainvilleas are well-known for their cute flower-like leaves, which grow around the bodily blossom. These thorny plants grow as vines and shrubs.
Indian Timber Bamboo (Bambusa Tulda)
Bamboo is the largest member of the grass family unit. Some species of bamboo tin can grow 90 cm (3 ft.) in i day! Indian Timber Bamboo is a particularly useful species of bamboo. As its name suggests, it is used to make furniture. It is also used to make paper and musical instruments. Information technology grows in S Asian rainforests.
Vanilla Orchid
The vanilla orchid was first used as a flavouring past the Aztecs. Today, the word 'vanilla' is usually used to describe a flavor, rather than the establish from which information technology comes. Vanilla orchids abound like vines, climbing upwardly other trees.
Wild vanilla orchids are pollinated by hummingbirds and melipona bees. They abound in Primal and South America.
Bucket Orchid
Plants in the genus Coryanthes, also known as Bucket orchids, rely on bees known equally orchid bees for pollination. In society to become the bees' help, the plants offer the insects a reward: a specially scented substance that tin can be used past male person bees to attract females.
The male bee is first attracted by the flower'south aroma. Equally it tries to get to the sweet-smelling, female-attracting liquid, it volition occasionally fall into the flower'southward 'bucket'; a special bedroom inside the body of the flower.
The merely style out of the saucepan is through a function of the flower that attaches pollen to the bee'south body. After making its escape, the bee will then pollinate any other bucket orchid of the same species that it visits.
The bucket orchid and the orchid bee have co-evolved; each is dependent on the other to reproduce.
Silky Oak (Grevillea robusta)
The silky oak is a large tree that grows in Australian rainforests. It is not closely related to true oak trees. Its timber is resistant to rot, and is used in carpentry and joinery.
Tualang (Koompassia Excelsa)
Tualang copse grow in the rainforests of Southeast Asia. Countries in which they are found include Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. Growing to heights of over 80m (262 ft.), tualangs are amongst the tallest of all rainforest copse. They tower over the other trees in the woods, forming the emergent layer – the height layer of the rainforest.
Tualangs have very smooth bark, making them hard for animals to climb. This is beneficial to the behemothic honey bee, an insect that nests loftier in the tree'south branches.
Tualang trees accept buttress roots, making them both more stable and able to reach more than nutrients.
Strangler Figs
Many epiphytes avert harming the plants on which they abound. This isn't the example with strangler figs, which impale the host plants.
A strangler fig begins life in the branches of another tree. As the fig grows, its roots descend to the forest flooring. Its stalk and so wraps effectually the host tree, forming a lattice. The fig is at present able to capture more sunlight and draw up more nutrients than its host, which eventually dies.
The strangler fig lattice, which is oft formed by more than than one fig, is by then strong plenty to back up its own weight. Information technology remains continuing even when the host tree has rotted abroad.
The strangler fig is an extremely important found in the rainforest ecosystem. Its fruit is food for many rainforest animals.
Corpse Flower (Rafflesia arnoldii)
The Rafflesia arnoldii has the biggest flower in the world. This rare constitute grows on vines that cross the forest flooring. It is constitute in the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra.
Rafflesia arnoldii flowers can reach 1 m (3 ft.) in diameter. They produce a aroma like rotting mankind, which is how they got the name 'Corpse Flower'. This odor attracts the flies which will pollinate the flower.
Bullpen Plants
No tropical rainforest plants list would be complete without a carnivorous plant! Pitcher plants have evolved to prey on insects, and are found in areas in which the soil is low in nutrients.
In that location are many different types of pitcher plant; all work in the same way. Insects fall into the plant's tube-like body after having been lured in with nectar or tempting scents. The insects are prevented from escaping past hairs in the sides of the tube.
The insects somewhen drown in a pool of liquid at the bottom of the tube. The plant draws nutrients from bodies of their casualty.
Some of the all-time-known pitcher plants are those of genus Nepenthes.
Heliconia
Heliconias are flowering plants found in the tropical rainforests of the Americas. They grow on the forest flooring, and are pollinated by hummingbirds attracted by their brightly-colored flowers.
Heliconias are popular ornamental plants in many parts of the world. They are also known equally 'lobster claws' due to the shape of their flowers.
Kapok (Ceiba pentandra)
Kapok trees are alpine rainforest trees whose highest branches form part of the emergent layer. Kapoks accept buttress roots. Kapok copse are found in the tropical rainforests of South America, Asia and Africa.
Durian (Genus: Durio)
Durian trees grow in Southeast Asia. Their fruit is famous for existence very potent-smelling. Some people like the smell, but others observe it repulsive! Despite this, the fruit is a popular food.
Mahogany (Genus: Swietenia)
Trees of the genus Swietenia are harvested for their forest, which is called mahogany. This scarlet-brown forest is valued for its beauty and colour. Swietenia copse are native to the rainforests of the Americas.
Tropical Rainforest Plants List: Conclusion
This tropical rainforest plants list includes flowers with special adaptations, trees with unusual root structures, and many plants that are used by homo either for food or to make other appurtenances and products.
Although no list of this type tin can promise to include all of the plants in the rainforest, we hope that we've provided you with an idea of the lives and uses of many varied plants found in tropical regions.
- Y'all tin find out more well-nigh tropical rainforest plants here: Plants of the tropical rainforest.
- Want to notice more? Visit our main rainforest facts page, where you tin can discover out amazing facts about the world's rainforests.
Source: https://www.activewild.com/tropical-rainforest-plants-list/
Posted by: vannesswhoplithe1968.blogspot.com
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