Plants In The Rain Forest example essay topic
455 words
Did you know that Tropical Rain Forest's occupy six to seven percent of the earth's surface? In only one specific Rain Forest consists of over 250 different species of trees, but in any average day forest may consist of ten to fifteen different types of species of trees. A Rain Forest by definition is a woodland characterized by lush vegetation and relatively high temperature and rainfall throughout the year. To qualify as a rain Forest, the area must have the tree tops touching each other, creating shade, which is called a canopy. Also, the temperature and rainfall must be reasonably stable throughout the year. These specific rain Forest's are found near the equator in South and Central America, Asia, Africa, and Australia. The average annual temperature is 77^0 F, while the average minimum monthly temperature in a rain forest is a rough 64^0 F. On an average, a rain forest's rainfall is as little as six feet, or as much as thirty feet yearly. As much as four inches of precipitation typically falls each month.
Nearly half of the precipitation comes from local evaporation. The warm and humid air forms such an environment which causes little rainfall to escape. Some of the rain rolls down the trunks of trees and the ground soaks it up, but most of it evaporates into tiny droplets in the humid atmosphere. Then, gentle winds pick them up and take them higher and higher into the air where they cool and form clouds. As the clouds accumulate to a reasonable amount, they then fall down as rain beginning the cycle all over again.
There are many different species of animals as well as plants in the rain forest. The rain forests plants range from mosses, grasses, flowers, bushes / shrubs, vines, and trees. The largest flower is the Rafflesia. It is a giant red flower that produces a stench of rotting meat to attract the insects it needs for pollination. Rafflesia is a sort of plant that cannot live on its own. It is a parasite that lives off another plant, a vine called Tetra stigma.
Rafflesia is rare and endangered. Most of the trees have tall slender trunks that don't branch until the top part near the canopy. For example, a kapok tree. They are supported by thick buttresses which provide support.
Their tree bark seems to be smooth and thin such as the palms. Rain forests also have insectivorous plants, which survive from their nutrients they get by trapping insects in their leaves. The pitcher plant is an example of an insectivorous plant.
