Description Of The Rainforest Floor

There are a few saprophytic flowering plants on the floor of the rainforest.

Description of the rainforest floor.

There are different types of rainforests throughout the world and they exist on every continent except for antarctica. Only two per cent of sunlight gets through the thick canopy trees and understorey plants to reach the forest floor. They have no chlorophyll. Large leafed shrubs and saplings new trees grow in the patches of sunlight.

Decomposition is the process by which fungi and microorganisms break down dead plants and animals and recycle essential materials and nutrients. The forest floor is the bottom layer of the rainforest and its also the darkest layer of the rainforest. There are cool rainforests to be found in north america s. The forest floor is also where decomposition takes place.

Rafflesia arnoldii which bears the largest flower on earth exists among the sparse population of plants on the tropical rainforest floor. It is actually rather the opposite. The floor is relatively clear of vegetation due to the deep darkness created by perhaps 100 feet 30 m of canopy vegetation above. Rainforests are divided into layers or storeys.

Saprophytic plants are inconspicuous and small few are more than 8 inches 20cm tall. The forest floor of primary tropical rainforest is rarely the thick tangled jungle of movies and adventure stories. It is actually rather the opposite. A rainforest is defined by merriam webster as a tropical woodland with an annual rainfall of at least 100 inches 254 centimeters and marked by lofty broad leaved evergreen trees forming a continuous canopy.