Tropical plants
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Tropical vegetation is any vegetation in tropical latitudes. Plant life that occurs in climates that are warm year-round is in general more biologically diverse that in other latitudes. Some tropical areas may receive abundant rain the whole year round, but others have long dry seasons which last several months and may vary in length and intensity with geographic location. These seasonal droughts have great impact on the vegetation, such as in the Madagascar spiny forests. Rainforest vegetation is categorized by five layers. The top layer being the upper tree layer. Here you will find the largest and widest trees in all the forest. These trees tend to have very large canopy's so they can be fully exposed to sunlight. A layer below that is the middle tree layer. Here you will find more compact trees and vegetation. These trees tend to be more skinny as they are trying to gain any sunlight they can. The third layer is the lower tree area. These trees tend to be around five to ten meters high and tightly compacted. The trees found in the third layer are young trees trying to grow into the larger canopy trees. The fourth layer is the shrub layer beneath the tree canopy. This layer is mainly populated by sapling trees, shrubs, and seedlings. The fifth and final layer is the herb layer which is the forest floor. The forest floor is mainly bare except for various plants, mosses, and ferns. The forest floor is much more dense than above because of little sunlight and air movement. Plant species native to the tropics found in tropical ecosystems are known as tropical plants. Some examples of tropical ecosystem are the
Guinean Forests of West Africa The Guinean forests of West Africa is a biodiversity hotspot designated by Conservation International, which includes the belt of tropical moist broadleaf forests along the coast of West Africa, running from Sierra Leone and Guinea in the west to ...
, the Madagascar dry deciduous forests and the broadleaf forests of the
Thai highlands The Thai highlands or Hills of northern Thailand is a mountainous natural region in the north of Thailand. Its mountain ranges are part of the system of hills extending through Laos, Burma, and China and linking to the Himalayas, of which they may ...
and the El Yunque National Forest in the Puerto Rico.


Description

The term "tropical vegetation" is frequently used in the sense of lush and luxuriant, but not all the vegetation of the areas of the Earth in tropical climates can be defined as such. Despite lush vegetation, often the soils of
tropical forests Tropical forests (a.k.a. jungle) are forested landscapes in tropical regions: ''i.e.'' land areas approximately bounded by the tropic of Cancer and Capricorn, but possibly affected by other factors such as prevailing winds. Some tropical fores ...
are low in
nutrient A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow, and reproduce. The requirement for dietary nutrient intake applies to animals, plants, fungi, and protists. Nutrients can be incorporated into cells for metabolic purposes or excret ...
s making them quite vulnerable to slash-and-burn deforestation techniques, which are sometimes an element of shifting cultivation agricultural systems. Tropical vegetation may include the following habitat types:


Tropical rainforest

Tropical rainforest ecosystems include significant areas of biodiversity, often coupled with high species endemism. 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.The Regents of the University of Michigan
The Tropical Rain Forest.
Retrieved on 14 March 2008.
The most representative are the Borneo rainforest, one of the oldest rainforests in the world, the Brazilian and Venezuelan
Amazon Rainforest The Amazon rainforest, Amazon jungle or ; es, Selva amazónica, , or usually ; french: Forêt amazonienne; nl, Amazoneregenwoud. In English, the names are sometimes capitalized further, as Amazon Rainforest, Amazon Forest, or Amazon Jungle. ...
, as well as the eastern
Costa Paulo Costa may refer to: Biology * Rib (Latin: ''costa''), in vertebrate anatomy * Costa (botany), the central strand of a plant leaf or thallus * Costa (coral), a stony rib, part of the skeleton of a coral * Costa (entomology), the leading edge of t ...
n rainforests.


Tropical seasonal forest

Seasonal tropical forests generally receive high total rainfall, averaging more than 1000 mm per year, but with a distinct dry season. They include: the Congolian forests, a broad belt of highland
tropical moist broadleaf forest Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat (ecology), habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Description TSMF is generally foun ...
which extends across the basin of the Congo River; Central American tropical forests in Panama and Nicaragua; the seasonal forests that predominate across much the Indian subcontinent, Indochina, and northern Australia: Queensland.


Tropical dry broadleaf forest

Tropical dry broadleaf forests The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest is a habitat (ecology), habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature and is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Though these forests occur in climates that are warm year-roun ...
are territories with a forest cover that is not very dense and has often an unkempt, irregular appearance, especially in the dry season. This type of forest often includes bamboo and teak as the dominant large tree species, such as in the Phi Pan Nam Range, part of the
Central Indochina dry forests The Central Indochina dry forests are a large tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests ecoregion in Southeast Asia. Location and description The ecoregion consists of an area of plateau and low river basin in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and ...
.UNESCO - MAB Biosphere Reserves Directory - Huai Tak Teak Biosphere Reserve
/ref> They are affected by often long seasonal dry periods and, though less biologically diverse than rainforests, tropical dry forests are home to a wide variety of wildlife.


Tropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands

Tropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublandsWWF - Grasslands
/ref> are spread over a large area of the tropics with a vegetation made up mainly of low
shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...
s and grasses, often including sclerophyll species. Some of the most representative are the
Western Zambezian grasslands The Western Zambezian grasslands is a tropical grassland ecoregion of eastern Zambia and adjacent parts of Angola. It is situated in two sections, to the north and south of the Barotse Floodplain. The region supports herds of ungulates, including ...
in Zambia and Angola, as well as the Einasleigh upland savanna in
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and the
Everglades The Everglades is a natural region of tropical climate, tropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin within the Neotropical realm. The system begins near Orland ...
in United States of America. Tree species such as
Acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus na ...
and
baobab ''Adansonia'' is a genus made up of eight species of medium-to-large deciduous trees known as baobabs ( or ). They are placed in the Malvaceae family, subfamily Bombacoideae. They are native to Madagascar, mainland Africa, and Australia.Tropic ...
may be present in these ecosystems depending on the region.


See also

* Biocoenosis * Ecoregion * Jungle * Vegetation type


Further reading

*Archibold, O. W. ''Ecology of World Vegetation''.
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
: Springer Publishing, 1994. *Barbour, M.G, J.H. Burk, and W.D. Pitts. "Terrestrial Plant Ecology". Menlo Park: Benjamin Cummings, 1987. *Breckle, S-W. ''Walter's Vegetation of the Earth.'' New York: Springer Publishing, 2002. * Van der Maarel, E. ''Vegetation Ecology''. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2004. * Geoff Tracey ''The Vegetation of the Humid Tropical Region of North Queensland''. Australia:
CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentar ...
1982. *Stork, N. E. & Turton, Stephen M. (2008). Living in a dynamic tropical forest landscape. Malden, MA : Blackwell Pub. * Leonard Webb ''A Physiognomic Classification of Australian Rain Forests'' Journal of Ecology Vol. 47, No. 3, pp. 551-570 ( British Ecological Society), 1959


References


External links


Classifying Vegetation Condition: Vegetation Assets States and Transitions (VAST)
{{Authority control Botany Ecology Biology terminology