Amazon Rainforest Plants
The Amazon rainforest plants helps sustain the life of many other species, even the entire human race. The following article will cover some information on the Amazon rainforest plants and animals.
About a third of the world's species of plants and insects make their home in Amazon rainforest. The Amazon rainforest plants and animals are all interdependent on each other. This interdependency is necessary for the survival of each species. Like some insects live on only one type of tree and some insects survive on one particular type of insect. When that particular Amazon plants and trees are destroyed, the insects will be left homeless. So these insects cannot proliferate and thus are lost forever. When these insects are lost, the birds have nothing to eat. So, they too gradually are pushed to extinction. Thus, the Amazon plants and animals are interdependent and each species help the other to win the fight for survival.
Not only are the Amazon rainforest plants and animals interdependent, even the human race survival depends on the Amazon rainforest plants and trees. Not only are the natives benefited by the Amazon rainforest plants and tress, but the world depends on Amazon rainforest. The Amazon rainforest helps maintain the world's climate. The rainforest helps maintain the oxygen content in the air. But, large-scale deforestation has wiped out a large area of rainforest plants and trees. This has led to increase in carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and many other harmful gases in the air. This has made our planet hotter and led to the greenhouse effect.
The Amazon rainforest plants and trees are used to extract many useful herbal medicines. Scientists have also found that the Amazon rainforest plants and trees hold the key to cure cancer and maybe even AIDS. The medicines that we use everyday like aspirin or painkillers, even for treatment of heart ailments, all contain compounds extracted from the Amazon rainforest plants and trees.
The Amazon Rainforest Ecosystem
The rainforest climate is really bad, it is hot, wet sticky and absolutely humid. The soil is also very poor. It rains suddenly and stops just as it started, suddenly. If you ever visit the Amazon rainforest, be sure to carry an umbrella always! The Amazon rainforest actually receives rainfall that is called convectional rainfall. It means the sun heats the ground, this causes the water to evaporate, then this evaporated water condenses to dew point at a certain height, it forms rain clouds and rains. What goes up comes down and what comes down goes up again!
This strange Amazon rainforest climate has led to many adaptations by the Amazon rainforest plants and trees. The emergent layer consists of tall trees up to a height of 40m that helps them get sunlight. The Amazon rainforest plants and trees have downward curving tips, to help drip off the rainwater. The tress are straight with branches only at the top. They are supported by buttress roots. The Amazon river tends to flood every few months, so the plants have also adapted themselves to prevent drowning. Let me now cover the Amazon rainforest plants list and help you know which type of plants and trees form the rainforest.
Layers of Amazon Rainforest
The Amazon rainforest is divided into four layers. The plants growing in these layers are different and they grow on each other in these layers. These layers from the floor to the top are as follows:
♣ Forest Floor Layer: This layer is the bottom most layer and is very dark down here. There are quite a few plant species that survive in this area as the amount of sunlight received is really less. Most of the decomposition of biological matter takes place in this layer.
♣ Understory Layer: The leaves of plants growing in this layer are very large. This is because they try to capture every bit of the little sunlight that reaches this layer. The plants are not very big in size and can be up to 12 feet in height.
♣ Canopy Layer: The canopy layer creates a maze of branches and leaves. It also helps protect the lower two layers.
♣ Emergent Layer: Very large trees that can grow above the height of 200 feet form the emergent layer.
Amazon Rainforest Plants List
1.
Bromeliad
There are over 2,000 species of bromeliad species in the Amazon rainforest. The most common bromeliad species is the favorite tropical fruit, the pineapple. You will find a variety of colors like purple, blue, orange, red in bromeliad plant species. They are found growing all over the rainforest on rocks, in soil and few grow on other Amazon rainforest plants and tree trunks. These plants are life-sustaining plants, as their leaves overlap each other and store rainwater.
2.
Heliconia
The heliconia flowers are also known by many other names. These names include wild plantain, lobster-claw, and false bird-of-paradise flowers. These flowers come in many sizes and colors and are shaped in such a way, that only a few birds can reach them for nectar. They are found in a rainbow of colors, patterns and sizes, making them popular decorative flowers around the world.
3.
Kapok Tree
The giant of the Amazon rainforest that can grow up to 200 feet high and 9 to 11 inches in diameter, the Kapok tree is the most important plant species of the Amazon rainforest, as it houses many species of Amazon rainforest plants and animals. You can find over 400 to 5000 fruits produced by the Kapok tree at one time. The Amazon rainforest kapok tree is used by the native people for its bark, resin, seeds and leaves. It is known to help treat fever, asthma, kidney diseases and dysentery.
4.
Orchids
The orchids are known for their beauty and strong fragrance. You will find hundreds of orchid species in the Amazon rainforest. They are known to survive long periods without water. They produce hundreds and thousands of seeds that are carried by the wind throughout the Amazon rainforest for propagation.
5.
Water Lily
The water-lily is the largest flower in the world. It can grow up to 6 feet long. Even though it is large, but weighs nothing. It can float on water in Amazon lakes and rivers. There are so many water lilies growing together, that they form a type of solid floor over the entire lake.
6.
White Trillium
The white trillium flower has three petals, three sepals and three leaves. If you chew on to white trillium leaves, it will help cure a snakebite. If a woman in labor chews on to the petals, it will help ease childbirth. And chewing on to the sepals helps curing fevers. As you can see, one white trillium plant has three useful uses.
7.
Coca
The coca plant is one of the widely used plants in South America. It is said, chewing the leaves will help treat a headache and prevent tiredness. It is also used to relieve sickness, hunger, fatigue and even aches and pains.
8.
Castor Beans
The castor beans are used to help relieve constipation. But, they are also very poisonous. Thus, their use has been minimized. Castor oil is used as a lubricant, lotion for dry skin, dermatitis, sunburn, open sores, etc. You can read more on medicinal plants of the rainforest.
9.
Trumpet Tree
The trumpet tree belongs to the Tabebuia genus. This genus contains about 100 different species of trees. This is a flowering tree that produces large, dense clusters of flowers. The trumpet tree is an attractive tree with flowers in the shape of a trumpet. The indigenous people of Brazil use the roots of the tree to heal wounds. The leaves are boiled down to a poultice and used to treat inflammation. They even make tea of the leaves to treat respiratory ailments.
10.
Strangler Fig
Strangler fig is a common name that is used to describe many plant species of related banyans and unrelated vines. These include Ficus aurea, Ficus obliqua, etc. These trees are so named due to their 'strangling' growth habit. These trees grow in the dark forests and begin life as epiphytes. It uses the host plant for support and as it grows it tends to kill the original tree. Thus, you may find many of these trees have a hollow central core.
Amazon Rainforest Plants Facts
♣ There are over two-thirds of world's plant species found in the Amazon rainforest.
♣ The size of a football field is the area of rainforest that is destroyed every second by excessive mining and deforestation.
♣ The giant bamboo plants can grow up to 9 inches a day.
♣ A rain drop takes about 10 minutes to reach the ground, as the canopy layer of the rainforest is so densely packed.
♣ Algae can grow over the Slots fur, as it moves so slowly in the moist South American Amazon rainforest.
♣ There are over 8,000 species of rainforest plants in Central Africa.
♣ About 80% of the flowers in the Australian rainforests are not found anywhere else in the world.
♣ 1 out of 4 ingredients used in making medicines is extracted from Amazon rainforest plants.
♣ The Amazon rainforests are known as the 'Lungs of Earth'
♣ In a four square mile patch of rainforest, there are as many as 1,500 flowering plants, 750 species of trees, 400 species of birds and 150 species of butterflies.
♣ Of the original 6 million square miles of tropical rainforest existing worldwide, only 2.6 million square miles remain today, due to excessive deforestation.
This was some information on Amazon rainforest plants. The Amazon rainforest is fast disappearing due to excessive deforestation. The Amazon rainforest helps give us many useful products, but we should give it a chance to grow back. We should not be blinded by the profits we make. There are many plants and animal species that are found only in the Amazon rainforest. They will be lost forever, if we do not save the Amazon rainforest plants and trees. Also, rainforest helps keep up the world's climate and losing them is like suicide for the human race.
There were over 6 million indigenous people living in the Brazilian Amazon once upon a time in 1500 AD. By the 1900's, less than 250,000 indigenous people were left living in the Amazon. Stop, think and act before we lose them all. If the indigenous people, the plants, the animals and insects do not mean anything to you, save the rainforest for your own survival. I hope this article on Amazon rainforest plants has been an interesting read. Wake up before it is too late. We need to save our rainforest before we too sink into the abysses like the Titanic.
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