Plants That Live On The Forest Floor

As animals decompose along the forest floor nutrients seep into the soil and help feed plants that would otherwise be malnourished.

Plants that live on the forest floor.

There are many forest birds that live on the forest floor of the rainforest. The forest floor is generally dark and damp and is home to many plants insects amphibians spiders small mammals and lizards. 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. 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.

They include many types of mushrooms and other fungi. This fertile ground cover is important for nourishing the plants that are capable of surviving in the dark under layer of a forest. There is too little sunlight here for plants to grow. The forest floor also called detritus duff and the o horizon is one of the most distinctive features of a forest ecosystem it mainly consists of shed vegetative parts such as leaves branches bark and stems existing in various stages of decomposition above the soil surface.

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. This is a forest habitat for birds lizards snakes and large predatory cats. 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 forest floor is covered in a layer of decomposition known as detritus.

Large leafed shrubs and saplings new trees grow in the patches of sunlight. Dead leaves fallen from the plants in the layers above cover the ground. The soil in a rainforest is nutrient poor and lacks things like calcium and magnesium and is essentially a wet desert but it does have elements that help to decompose plant matter that falls to the ground and is rich in carbon. 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 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. The understory layer could be described as the middle part of the flora system. They feed on insects and tend to be elusive creatures. Only two per cent of sunlight gets through the thick canopy trees and understorey plants to reach the forest floor.

The forest floor is very dark in a rainforest and hence it is not the home to many plants.