Plants and trees of the rainforest

 There are many different plants and trees in the rainforest. Some botanists have found over 300 different species of trees growing on one-hectare plots in the Peruvian Amazon. Other botanists have discovered more than 500 species of trees on an individual hectare in the Central Amazon valley of Brazil.

        There are wealth of plants that hold great promise for wider utilization. Indigenous and other local people presently utilize many of these species, and some have been introduced to agriculture elsewhere in the tropics.

        Some species posses specific advantages for cultivation, like the ability to grow under harsh conditions, or have superior content or quality of oils, proteins, drugs, insecticides, waxes or other products of importance.

        We will now take a look at some of the different types of plants and trees from the Rainforests and learn a little about some of them.

  In English this species is known as the "Peach Palm" the regional names for this tree are Cachipay (Colombia), Pituayo (Peru), Pupunha (Brazil), and Tembe` (Bolivia). This tree grows in clusters of several trunks, each trunk reaching 20m tall. The leaves are up to 2m long, they are spined with ferocious 10cm long needles. Each palm can yield up to a dozen fruit bunches annually.

 The fruit are orange and red on the outside, and inside is a yellowish, mealy flesh surrounding a hard seed. This palm is an extremely valuable plant, providing food to Indigenous peoples who plant it wherever they live.

 This is another beautiful palm known throughout the Amazon valley as the Pataua`. This palm can grow up to 25m in height with its feathery leaves that are up to 8m long. The tree produces large clusters of dark purple, olive-sized fruit with a nutritious pulp and high quality oil. The oil, light green or yellow in color, is almost identical to olive oil in its physical and chemical properties. Also the protein found in this fruit is comparable to that of good animal protein, and much better than most grain and legume sources of protein.

 Thick woody vines are found in the canopy of the rainforests. These vines, called, Lianas vines, some times are as big around as a person. They climb the tree in the canopy to reach for sunlight.

 The tree Waratah Alloxylon Flammeum produces masses of vivid red flower clusters in spring and summer.

 The Hoya Australia is a rainforest climbing plant with large clusters of waxy flowers. It is commonly known as the wax flower.

 This Buckinghamia Celsissima is an attractive small rainforest tree, which succeeds in gardens in colder areas. This is also known as the Ivory Curl Tree.

 Another beauty you will find here is the Passiflora a red flower, and it works closely together with a hummingbird. When it hovers in front of the flower sucking the nectar, the elevated anthers will deposit some pollen on the bird’s forehead.

 There are some plants that don’t need light. This is one of the ones that don’t the Cookeina Tricholoma also known as the orange toadstool.

  The Bush Papaya (Cecropia), which is a distant relative of our stinging nettle. The Bush Papaya does not actually sting by itself, but hires someone else for that; Ants live in the hollow trunks and the brown glands underneath the leaf base provide food.

 Here is a plant that likes the sunny spots in the forest. It is known as the Costus Scaber. Due to the partitioning of the leaves it is also known as the winding staircase. This plant belongs to the ginger family.

 When you look up from the forest floor you are most likely to see this fern Elaphoglossum Laminariodes.

  At the same height, but rather in the smaller trees of the lowest tree layer, you will find Guzmania Lingulata. This is related to the houseplant.

   This tree is called a treefern. Look at the size of this tree compared to the man standing next to it!

         There are over 20,000 different varieties of Orchids found in the rainforests. Orchids can be found growing on tree branches, trunks of trees or on rocks. These are one of the most beautiful flowers found in the rainforests. Since there are so many  different Orchids I am sure you can find one you like.

  The Astrocaryum is a stem less mini plant that really behaves as a trash can. You can see how it collects dead leaves: the reason for the palm is interested is because of the nutrients in the dead leaves.

 There are some plants that do well under the low light conditions of the forest floor. They are ferns like this one the Maidenhair fern.

 This plant the Vriesea Splendens grows, on or near the forest floor.

  This tiny plant the Saprophytic doesn’t need much light either. This plant is also found near or on the forest floor.

 The Bollea Violacea is another type of orchid. This orchid you can find in the upper layer of the forest, because of the sunlight there.

  The Paphinia Cristata is another beautiful plant found in the rainforest. This plant is also found in the upper layer of the forest.

 The Heliconia Psittacorum, is a common weed in some rainforests. They are distantly related to the banana.

             As you can seen there are many different species of plants and trees. This was just some that I found interesting. You could go on for ever looking at the different species this are the things we need to help save from destruction. Now that you have seen what is in the rainforest how beautiful these plants are maybe we can all do our part and help save these different species from destruction. They can't save their selves we as people have to do it!