Rainforest Plants

Rainforest Plants

Rainforest Plants
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 8 to 9
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	7.59

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		avocadoes, bromeliads, cacao, epiphyte, epiphytes, better, leukemia, nutmeg, allspice, periwinkle, rainforest, grapefruit, traps, survival, woody, planet
	content words:		South America, North American, South American, US National Cancer Institute

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Rainforest Plants
By Sharon Fabian

¹     The rainforest is green and growing and lively. In the rainforest it is warm all year long, and there is lots of rain, often over 100 inches of rain per year. Since sunshine and rain are two of the things that plants need to grow, you can see why the rain forest is home to many, many plants. In fact, more than half of the world's different species of plants live in the rainforest.

²     The major plants in a tropical rainforest are trees. There are more types of trees in the rainforest than there are anywhere else. Rainforest trees have tall straight trunks and smooth bark. The taller ones have a canopy of leaves up to 100 feet above the forest floor. The lower ones have a canopy of leaves about 60 feet above the ground.

³     Another type of rainforest plant is the epiphyte. Epiphytes are plants that grow on trees instead of on the ground. Orchids, bromeliads, and ferns are rainforest epiphytes. Bromeliads are interesting plants that have leaves that form a holding tank for water. These leaf tanks can hold from less than a pint to more that 10 gallons of water. These little tanks of water are home to whole communities of small creatures including bacteria, mosquitoes, tadpoles, and other animals. There are also tiny epiphytes that live on a leaf including mosses, liverworts, and lichens.

Paragraphs 4 to 9:
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