Category Plants & Animals

Rainforest trees

 

 

Trees grow fast in the warm, wet rainforest. They race each other upwards to reach the sunlight. Some trees grow much taller than others. They have long, straight trunks and their branches spread out wide at the top of the tree.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some treetops are as big as a school playground.

Huge trees, called emergents, can grow up to 70 metres tall! Their branches spread out over the forest canopy like an umbrella to make the most of the sunlight and space. They may also take advantage of the greater air movement at the top of the forest by developing winged seeds that can be carried by the wind.

 

 

 

 

Rainforest trees have large roots to prop them up.

Rainforest trees have large ‘buttress’ roots that spread out wide at their base like a skirt. They support the long trunk and anchor the huge tree firmly in place. The soil in a rainforest is shallow and nutrient-poor, so a tree’s roots fan out wide rather than dig deep.

 

 

 

 

Monkeys live high up in the treetops.

Monkeys are excellent climbers and leap or swing between branches. They use their strong tail like an extra arm and coil it around branches to help them hold on. A monkey’s tail has a bare patch under the tip, like the skin on the palm of a hand, to help it to grip on tightly.

Inside a rainforest

 

 

 

The heat and heavy rain in a rainforest are perfect for living things. Trees grow tall and flowers blossom. The lush rainforest provides food and shelter for the millions of creatures that it is home to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rainforests recycle their own water

Every day, the sun heats the rainforest, causing water from trees and plants to evaporate (turn into its gas form – water vapour). As the water vapour rises, it cools and condenses back into liquid water and forms rain clouds. When it rains, the plants soak up rain and the water cycle begins again.

 

 

 

 

 

Continue reading “Inside a rainforest”

What are rainforests?

 

 

Rainforests are dense, warm, wet forests, with huge trees. They are very special places. Over half the known animals and plants in the world live in rainforests, and new ones are being discovered all the time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a tropical rainforest. It rains here almost every day.

More than two metres of rain falls in a tropical rainforest every year. It is a hot, wet and steamy place with little variation in weather and no seasons. As a result, the trees and plants stay green and keep growing all year round.

 

 

 

 

 

The white areas were once rainforests.

An area of rainforest the size of a football pitch is destroyed every second! They are cut down for their wood, or to make way for farms, mines or roads. These unique and important environments – which affect the world’s weather and provide us with medicine, food and oxygen – could be lost forever.

The green areas on this map show where tropical rainforests grow today.

Most of the world’s rainforests are tropical. They grow in ‘the tropics’, a hot area just north and south of the equator. The equator is the imaginary line we draw around the middle of the earth. Some rainforests grow further north and south of the equator where it is cooler. These are temperate rainforests.

 

Flesh – eating plants

 

 

 

 

Some plants trap insects and suck the goodness out of their bodies. Insects go to sundews or flytraps to look for food. When they do, they may be held by sticky hairs or trapped by strong leaves that snap shut like jaws!

 

 

 

 

 

This plant feeds on tasty insects.

This plant catches insects on its sticky leaves. Other plants catch insects by looking and smelling good. Pitcher plants do this. The insect goes to the pitcher plant to feed on the nectar. Once inside the plant’s hollow leaf, it cannot climb out because the walls are slippery. It dies in the liquid at the bottom, dissolves and becomes plant food.

 

 

Insects stick to the hairs on sundew plants.

This sundew plant oozes sticky juice onto the insect. The insect isn’t strong enough to escape. Its body turns to liquid and the plant absorbs the insect through its leaves!

 

 

 

 

 

This Venus flytrap has a fly in its jaws.

This fly has been tricked into stepping onto the leaf of a Venus flytrap while it was searching for nectar. The leafy jaws snap shut when anything touches the hairs. The Venus flytrap kills its victims using a liquid that turns the fly’s body into juice. It can take the flytrap two weeks to digest one fly.

 

Plants as food

 

People and animals need plants for food. We can eat all the different parts of plants. We can eat the stem and leaves of some plants, but sometimes we eat the roots, the fruits or the seeds.

 

 

 

 

We eat some flowers but not others.

Did you know that broccoli and cauliflowers are edible flowers? Capers are edible flower buds. Other flowers are not at all good to eat. It is dangerous to eat some flowers. Eating this iris would make you ill.

 

 

 

 

Farmers sow seeds. The seeds grow into plants for us to eat.

Farmers water their crops if there is too little rain. They harvest the crops when they are ready. If there is too much rain or wind, or it is too hot or too cold, the crops may be ruined.

 

 

 

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Seeds life Cycle

When a seed bursts into life and a new plant begins to grow, it is part of a greater life cycle. The new plant grows and makes new seeds which may grow into new plants. Dead plants also give life to other plants and animals.

 

 

 

Pine cones contain lots of seeds. They contain the information they need to make a new plant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If the seed lands on soil and has water and light, it may germinate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With enough light and water, the tiny plant continues to grow.

 

 

 

 

 

Continue reading “Seeds life Cycle”