The trees are the first thing one notices upon entering the rainforest. They are huge – up to 150 feet (45 m) tall!
Trees in the rainforest must grow rapidly to reach the sun at the canopy. To be competitive, they grow tall without growing as wide as trees in moderate climates. They have developed several methods of supporting great height without requiring great width. Having “prop roots” is one method of doing this.
Rainforest Trees and The Canopy: an introduction.
Dr. Stephen Blythe, Rainforest Education
http://www.rainforesteducation.com/life/canopy1.htm
The trees are the first thing one notices upon entering the rainforest. They are huge – up to 150 feet tall!
Trees in the rainforest must grow rapidly to reach the sun at the canopy. To be competitive, they grow tall without growing as wide as trees in moderate climates. They have developed several methods of supporting great height without requiring great width. Having “prop roots” is one method of doing this.
The other method of supporting a tall tree is with “buttress roots”. Because these trees are narrow and may not have any branches for the first 50 feet or so, they appear even taller than they are.
This gives you some idea of how big these roots were. We thought this was a big tree until a few days later…..
…until a few days later when we found a really big tree! If you ever get a chance to visit the Tikal Biosphere Preserve in Guatemala, don’t pass it up!
Contrary to popular belief, tropical rainforest trees are not taller than all trees in temperate climates. This is an old-growth cedar in the Broken Islands, off the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. It was as awesome as any tropical forest tree I have ever seen!