Tropical rainforest plants
grow in more obvious layers than temperate rainforest
plants.
Central and South America
Central and South
American rainforests are the largest rainforests in the
world. And they contain the largest amounts of plants in the world.
Every tenth plant on the Earth is found in Amazon rainforests.
Like in
all tropical rainforests, there are the tall trees, vines and
epiphytes, shorter trees and tree ferns, and orchids and other smaller
plants on the forest floor. Some more famous examples are the bird of
paradise flower, the giant lilys, and the carnivorous pitcher plants.
Africa and Madagascar
Island African
rainforests
are the second largest in the world after Amazon. These rainforests are
known to be relatively poor in species, considering they are (such
large) rainforests.
There are evergreen, semi-evergreen, deciduous and
semi-deciduous forests. One classic African rainforest plant is Parasol
tree (Musanga ceropiodes).
Madagascar
Island is known for all things endemic and about 80% of its
12,000 plant species are endemic, including six of the world's eight
species of baobab trees.
Asian Tropical Rainforest Plants Asian
rainforests are
smaller than those of South America and Africa. But there are still
some extensive rainforests in India, Indochinan countries, Borneo
Island and Indonesia. Some more remarkable plants are blooms,
carnivorous pitcher plants, and Rafflesia flowers - the world's largest
flowers, which are endemic to Asia.
Oceania Australasia Rainforest
Flora In Oceania, tropical rainforests are only found in New
Guinea, northern Australia, and some Pacific Islands. (New Zealand's
rainforests are temperate).
In New Guinea, there are tropical rainforests covering about 172,000
square kilometres of land. They contain many mosses, aleocarp trees,
laurels, oaks and many more kinds of plants.
In Australia, there are some 20,000 species of vascular plants, most of
which are found in tropical rainforests. There are many ancient
hardwood species, about 400 species of ferns, and about 900 species of
eucalypt trees (albeit most of Eucalypts do not live in rainforests,
but woodlands).
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