Featured plants
Medicinal plants
The rainforest ~
The most useful part of the plant is its root. Kava root can be ground into a drink that locals consider to symbolize good will. People drink it to celebrate or commemorate important milestones- from marriages to funerals.
Layers of the rainforest
A rainforest has four layers:
- Forest floor: The bottom layer ~ The soil has few nutrients because it is not enriched by decaying matter. Nearly all of the decaying matter is instead used by plants or washed away by rain.
- Understory layer: The second layer ~ This layer is humid and doesn't have much light. It has smaller shrubs and trees.
- Canopy layer: The third layer ~ Treetops keep the majority of light and water from passing down into the Understory and Forest Floor. There are many different kinds of plants and animals living in this layer.
- Emergent layer: The top layer ~ This layer is composed of the tallest trees in the rainforest, rising above the Canopy layer to reach the sunlight.
Wetlands ~
These desert epiphytes are known as air plants. Unlike the rainforest epiphytes we saw, air plants do not have long, thick stems for wrapping around other plants.