Forest plants trees moss 3. It can grow to two hundred feet tall and have a trunk diameter of nine feet. Most are orchids bromeliads ferns and philodendron relatives. The plants of a temperate deciduous forest adapt to the biome in a variety of ways depending on the type of plant. Let us learn more about these enchanting forest plants.
They are grown as ornamental plants in other areas. Bougainvilleas are well known for their beautiful flower like leaves which grow around the actual flower. Two edible species are morels and puffballs. Mosses and lichens can cover the downed trunks of trees.
In the fall the vine maple grabs your attention with brilliant red and orange leaves. The earth is covered with many types of vegetation from evergreen forests to desert vegetation. Emergent trees have a very different world to live in than other rainforest trees. However it is the deciduous forest plants that mesmerize us with their ever changing hues and growth pattern.
They grow on trees to take advantage of the sunlight in the canopy. Shelf fungi grow off the sides of trees. Economically the rubber tree is one of the most important trees in the amazon rainforest for indigenous peoples. The ground layer of the deciduous forest is home to lichens club mosses and true mosses which grow on the ground or on trunks of trees.
One of the largest trees on the planet is the kapoc. Sheet or mood moss can be gathered in clean patches from mossy forests on rotations of five to ten years when less than half of the loose moss is removed each time and multiple patches with many capsules are left behind to reseed through spores or the regrowth of fragments. The inner bark of the tree oozes latex when cut or damaged. Forest moss can be sustainably gathered from rocks logs and the forest floor if great care is taken to ensure future harvests.
The kapoc came from south america originally but is now found in many rainforests around the world. The bark of deciduous trees is thicker and heartier than tropical trees to protect the inner core during long hard winters. A colourful entry to the tropical rainforest plants list bougainvilleas are native to south america. Its plant diversity and structural complexity is unrivalled on the australian continent and represents the origins of many of australias most familiar flora.
Tiny plants called epiphylls mostly mosses liverworts and lichens live on the surface of leaves. The trees grow large leaves to absorb the most possible light during the growing season. Epiphytes are plants that live on the surface of other plants especially the trunk and branches. The maple shaped leaves sport up to 9 lobes instead of the more common 3 5 lobes.
Vine maple acer circinatum the multi trunked rather shrubby vine maple reaches only to 21 or so.