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A tropical rainforest typically has a number of layers, each with different plants and animals adapted for life in that particular area. Examples include the emergent, canopy, understory and forest floor layers. [19] [20]
However, few plant lineages remain from the ancient Gondwanan flora; most extant plant groups immigrated via across-ocean dispersal well after continental break-up. After its continental separation, Madagascar probably experienced a dry period, and tropical rainforest expanded only later in the Oligocene to Miocene when rainfall increased.
Rainforests are home to half of all the living animal and plant species on the planet. [7] Two-thirds of all flowering plants can be found in rainforests. [5] A single hectare of rainforest may contain 42,000 different species of insect, up to 807 trees of 313 species and 1,500 species of higher plants. [5]
Tropical rainforest ecosystems include significant areas of biodiversity, often coupled with high species endemism. [4] Rainforests are home to half of all the living animal and plant species on the planet and roughly two-thirds of all flowering plants can be found in rainforests.
Lianas are uniquely adapted to living in such forests as they use the host tree, for stability, to reach to top of the canopy. Lianas directly damage hosts by mechanical abrasion and strangulation, render hosts more susceptible to ice and wind damage, [citation needed] and increase the probability that the host tree falls.
Calamus moti is a climbing rainforest plant in the palm family Arecaceae, which is endemic to Queensland.It has a slim flexible stem which does not support the plant, instead it climbs to the forest canopy with the assistance of long tendrils armed with stout recurved hooks.
Socratea exorrhiza, the walking palm or cashapona, is a palm native to rainforests in tropical Central and South America.It can grow to 25 metres in height, with a stem diameter of up to 16 cm, [1] but is more typically 15–20 m tall and 12 cm in diameter. [2]
Rainforest in Kinabalu Park, Borneo. The biodiversity on the island of Borneo consists of 15,000 plant species, with more than 1,400 amphibians, birds, fish, mammals, reptiles and insects. The biodiversity on the island of Borneo consists of 15,000 plant species, with more than 1,400 amphibians, birds, fish, mammals, reptiles and insects.