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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

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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

The lesson

Rainforests are packed with many kinds of plants. Giant trees tower over everything. Tiny orchids grow high on branches. Long vines wind up every trunk.

Kapok tree60Liana vine30Floorplant2
Kapok trees grow very tall to reach the sunlight first.
Try it together

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.

Good to know

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.

Watch it

Where it sits

Where this leads

Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.

Then practise

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.

Rainforest Plants · Science, ages 5 to 7 · LightMySky