Hobbies And Interests
Flora: Roots
Rainforest soil retains nutrients in its top layers, requiring that trees utilize shallow root systems to absorb necessary resources. In order to support trees of great heights, though, these roots must rely on an alternative to depth. Buttress roots form enormous ridges, up to 30 feet high, which rise from the ground and merge with the tree's trunk, stabilizing tall rainforest trees and delivering nutrients to them. Prop roots are common to mangrove rainforest trees and tropical palms, stabilizing them in their soggy, muddy terrain by forming a complex, downward-growing system. These roots implant themselves solidly in the earth while trapping sediment to resist flooding, and they can grow up to 28 inches per month above the ground.
Flora: Thin Bark
Unlike the trees in a temperature deciduous forest, trees of the tropical rain forest have no need to trap moisture with thick barks. Instead, in these high-humidity habitats, trees frequently have thin bark which allows moisture to escape from the trunk. Their textures are often smooth, which reduces the ability for parasitic or epiphytic plants to grow on the tree's surface. Furthermore, this paper-like bark can be shed in patches, enabling trees to rid themselves regularly of such surface-growing plants.
Flora: Leaves
Leaves of rainforest plants must adapt to the high-rain conditions of their environments. An extension of the leaf known as a drip tip is common among as many as 90 percent of rainforest species, channelling excess rainwater directly off the end of the leaf. A typically leathery texture among plants' leaves aids in this process. Rainforest plants also have specialized leaves for the light conditions in which they live. Many of them, particularly those farther from the canopy, have large leaves that increase the surface area for sunlight absorption. While most leaves are green, certain rainforest plants possess leaves of vivid colors, from yellow to purple to pink, whether containing pigments to protect their chlorophyll from bright light or growing internal poisons to ward off predators.
Fauna: Eating Specializations
Dietary specialization is not uncommon among rainforest fauna due to the competition for food, and some animals come equipped with bodily characteristics that give them advantages over others to attain food. Toucans have distinctively large bills that enable them to cut fruit from small, inaccessible branches; their strong bills double as nutcrackers. Leafcutter ants venture up trees many times daily to snip pieces of leaves, which they bring to their nests; these pieces may be as heavy as 50 times their body weight. The ants use the leaf pieces to harvest a fungus they use as their only source of food.
Fauna: Camouflage
Animals in all levels of the rainforest food chain use camouflage, whether to hide from predators or from prey. Sloths are partially disguised among the leaves of the canopy due to green-colored algae, which grows among its fur. Butterflies, such as the Indian leaf, are sometimes camouflaged to blend in with the leaves of plants, and the walking stick insect is often indistinguishable among the branches it frequents. Camouflaged boa constrictors are able to surprise their prey when hidden among the plants of the forest.
Fauna: Behavioral Modifications
Specialized movement can be crucial to species in this delicate life system, and adaptations have occurred to accommodate this necessity. Sloths, as the world's slowest mammal, go generally unnoticed to fast-moving predators as they hang nearly motionless from the canopy branches. The rainforest's many monkey varieties are similarly well-adapted. New World monkeys are equipped with prehensile tails, a climbing tool and occasional body support system that leaves hands and feet free for rummaging and eating. Meanwhile, Goeldi's monkeys can leap distances of up to 13 feet; their tails stabilize them while their specially curved claws help to grip branches. Poison dart frogs have toes with suction-like power, aiding them in climbing up trees for food.