Plants That Live On The Forest Floor

There are many forest birds that live on the forest floor of the rainforest.

Plants that live on the forest floor.

The lack of light water and nutrients all add up to why plants struggle growing on the forest floor and so only a few are adapted to live there. They feed on insects and tend to be elusive creatures. The plants that are able to survive in the low light conditions of the forest floor are adapted to warm moist environments and of course very little sunlight. Large leafed shrubs and saplings new trees grow in the patches of sunlight.

These darkness loving plants live inside of dead and decomposing trees branches and other rotting plant material. As animals decompose along the forest floor nutrients seep into the soil and help feed plants that would otherwise be malnourished. The forest floor is covered in a layer of decomposition known as detritus. Although principally composed of non living organic material the forest floor also teems with a wide variety of.

The forest floor is very dark in a rainforest and hence it is not the home to many plants. They include many types of mushrooms and other fungi. Only two per cent of sunlight gets through the thick canopy trees and understorey plants to reach the forest floor. This fertile ground cover is important for nourishing the plants that are capable of surviving in the dark under layer of a forest.

Dead leaves fallen from the plants in the layers above cover the ground. The national aquarium in baltimore describes how these insects are some of the only animals that live on the rainforest floor along with ants and anteaters. The majority of plants that grow on the forest floor are used by insects such as the madagascar hissing cockroach and the giant african millipede as food. This is a forest habitat for birds lizards snakes and large predatory cats.

There is too little sunlight here for plants to grow. The forest floor is the lowest layer where it is dark hot and damp. Another factor is animal predators it s a lot easier for animals to eat the leaves on the floor than the leaves up in the trees. Some of the birds included in the bird family dwelling on the forest floor are peafowls jungle fowls the common peacock the green peacock megapodes and bower birds.

The understory layer could be described as the middle part of the flora system.