Rainforests Flowers and Fruits
by Devin.

RAINFOREST FLOWERS AND FRUITS
The Rainforest is home to many and varied varieties of flowers and plamts, from the tall Rainforest trees to the smallest fungi and moss. Rainforest plants have various ways of ensuring that their seeds reach new ground far from the parent plant. Many are encased in edible fruit, whose devourer will eventually expel the seeds surrounded by fertiliser. Rainforest fruits may contain antibiotics which protect the seeds against bacteria or substances which repel animals unsuitable for seed dispersal.

Rainforest fungi grow amongst the Ground Litter on dead wood and on tree trunks. They are Nature's recyclers which help return once-living matter to the soil to be used again. Some fungi even work in partnership with living plants - the fungi grows on the plant's roots, feeding on processed food excess to the plant's requirements. The plant in return uses raw nutrients gathered by the fungus's vast network of hyphae. This allows trees to grow on soil they would otherwise find too poor.

Rainforests grow some of the most beautiful flowers in the world like the many varieties of orchids. Rainforest flowers, fungi and fruit are also used extensively by the native people who still inhabit Rainforest areas for food, dyes and medicines. Brazil nuts and cashews both come from the Rainforest as does Quinine, a valuable drug which comes from Cichonas.