Rainforest plants
thrive extremely well in their environment, because every plant loves a
lot of water, and rainforests are indeed very wet places.
This
means rainforests are
thick and dense, full of plant life, and
packed with different plants - it gets so crowded that the biggest
competition is this of sunlight.
Every plant tries therefore to reach high up to not to miss out on sunlight.
Large trees
grow tall and spread out their canopies and block the light
from reaching the ground.Some extra tall trees, called emergents, grow through that canopy, even higher.
Others,
like vines climb on tree trunks to reach the sunlight high up. Orchids
and epiphytes start growing high up in the trees when a bird drops a
seed there.
Shorter trees
and other plants grow on the rainforest floor, where some
light happens to reach the forest ground.
When a high tree falls and opens up the canopy, smaller plants
get a chance to start growing in the sunlight on the rainforest floor.
Rainforest flora vary considerably between tropical
and
temperate
rainforests; and between the rainforests on
different continents.
Tropical
rainforest species are more numerous, while temperate
rainforests have less layers and are more known for giant trees, mosses
and epiphytes.
Note:
This site uses British English, which is the English we use in
Australia. Disclaimer:
This website is about interesting facts about rainforests.
It
is not
trying to be comprehensive. Although best efforts
have been made to
ensure
that all the information on this
site is correct, rainforest-facts.com
is
not to
be blamed should
there be a mistake. Copyright
notice:
All contents of this website are strictly protected by the Law of
Copyright. What
does that mean?