Rainforest Plants
Know that rainforests contain an enormous variety of plants: towering kapok and Brazil nut trees, climbing vines called lianas, colourful orchids that grow on tree branches, giant water lilies, and huge leaves that funnel rainwater
What a learner can do afterwards
- Name at least three types of rainforest plant, such as kapok trees, lianas (climbing vines), and orchids
- Explain that rainforest plants grow very tall because they compete for sunlight
- Describe one unusual feature, such as orchids growing on tree branches or lianas climbing up trunks
1 · Read
Rainforests are packed with many kinds of plants, and some make foods you know, like bananas and chocolate. Giant trees tower over everything. Tiny orchids grow high on branches. Long vines wind up every trunk.
Mia looks up in the rainforest. She sees a giant kapok tree. Vines called lianas climb around its trunk. A small orchid blooms on a branch. The lianas climb to reach sunlight without growing thick trunks of their own.
Rainforest plants must race for sunlight. They grow tall very fast. Lianas climb trees instead of growing thick trunks.
Rainforest plants grow tall and strange to win the race for sunlight.
The rewritten readings were written for this dataset.
More to read
A tree can be an orchid's home
An orchid is a plant with flowers that can be bright and colourful. Many rainforest orchids rest on branches instead of growing in soil. Roots hanging in the air take in rainwater and nutrients from tiny bits of fallen material.
The tree gives these orchids a place to grow. They do not feed on it. High branches offer more sunlight than the shady ground below.
Many tree-growing orchids need their roots to dry between drinks. Keeping them wet all the time can harm them.
Wide leaves catch light
Plants make food using sunlight caught by their leaves. Some rainforest plants have wide leaves. This gives them more room to collect light beneath tall trees that shade the ground.
There is plenty of rain, too. Water can run off a leaf, a little like rain running off a roof.
Leaves that rest on water
A water lily grows in water. Its roots sit below the surface, while broad, round leaves float above them. Flowers can rest on the water or rise above it.
Some tropical water lilies have leaves bigger across than a door. Their raised edges make them look like shallow plates. The leaves have a strong shape that helps support them.
Tropical water lilies grow well with sunshine and warm, quiet water. You may find them in rainforest rivers.
2 · Watch
به انگلیسیTake it off screen
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.