FOREST RESQUE

The Amazing Rain Forest

Tropical rain forests exist in a belt around the Earth's middle. The center of this belt is the Equator. The top edge is the Tropic of Cancer, and the bottom is the Tropic of Capricorn. Within this belt, the temperatures average 80 degrees all year, and the annual rainfall is between 80 and 200 inches. Most of the trees in a tropical rain forest are broadleaf trees that remain green throughout the year. Click here to see what The Arbor Day Foundation is doing to help preserve these precious resources.

Rain forests cover only 2% of the Earth's surface, but they provide habitat and nutritional support for almost half of the Earth's known living species. The El Triunfo Biosphere Reserve alone harbors 30 native mammals, from jaguar and spider monkey to ocelot and white tailed deer — and some 150 species of birds.

Many rain forest plants have adapted to attract a pollinator by developing a particular color, shape or fragrance. The Corpse Flower's fragrance resembles decaying meat or flesh. This horrible smell attracts the special insects needed to pollinate the flowers.

Strangler figs evolved a very effective way to reproduce and thrive in a crowded forest. Fruit-eating birds deposit fig seeds in the crotches of branches well above the forest floor. These seeds germinate and send roots down the trunk of the host tree to the forest floor, where they eventually gain a strong foothold. In many cases, the roots eventually form a solid tube around the tree!

Meanwhile, the fig tree grows up from these roots, its leaves beginning to shade the host tree. Without light, the host tree dies, and the fig lives on, supported by the wood of the older tree.

You might see walking palms, trees with roots beginning about chest high. Leaning on their roots as they grow, these trees give the impression that they are out for a stroll on stilts.

While some plants along the dark forest floor have adapted to the lack of sunlight many seek light by actually growing on the trees. Water and food is gathered from the host tree, from the air, or from “pockets” grown to store water. Some tree frogs and many insects live their entire lives in these “pockets.” Common epiphytes include orchids, bromeliads and philodendrons, a popular house plant.

Among the strange and beautiful flowers in the rain forest, there are many familiar ones. The popular “Impatiens” grows wild along rain forest paths.