Colombian Rainforest
Below you will find a collection of photos from Colombia. Pictures were taken by Rhett A. Butler in
2006, 2007, and 2010. While these images are the property of mongabay.com, it may be permissible
to use them for non-commercial purposes (like powerpoint presentations and school projects),
provided that the images are not altered in any form. Please read this for more details. If you are
interested in using an image in a publication please contact me.
From the site: http://travel.mongabay.com/colombia/indexes/flora1.html
This image can be purchased in high resolution format or in print
Pink bananas
Image code: co03-9823
Location: Santuario Otún Quimbaya Pereira
Photographer: Rhett A. Butler
Camera: Canon Digital Rebel
botanical gardens | heliconia | flora | plants
Heliconia
Image code: colombia_2698
Location: Capurgana Choco-Darien
Photographer: Rhett A. Butler
Camera: Canon
flora | plants | heliconia | capurgana | choco-darien
Neoregelia Bromeliad. Identification by Alexander Gostner.
Image code: co03-9937
Location: Bogota
Photographer: Rhett A. Butler
Camera: Canon Digital Rebel
botanical gardens | bromeliads | epiphytes | flora | plants
Cecropia tree
Image code: co03-9835
Location: Santuario Otún Quimbaya Pereira
Photographer: Rhett A. Butler
Camera: Canon Digital Rebel
botanical gardens | trees | cecropia | flora | plants
Oak trees (Quercus humboldtii) - although I'm not sure if this is tropical rainforest: From
http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/adopt/projects/colombia:
"Cachalú Biological Reserve located on the western slopes of the Andes Mountains in
Colombia. The rugged Andes are home to a wealth of biodiversity, including many species of
plants and animals that are found nowhere else on Earth. Because of the variety of altitudes
on the mountain slopes, the area includes many different ecosystems: high-altitude paramo,
mountain forests, dry tropical forest and lowland rainforest. The oak forests protect some 225
species of birds and 70 species of mammals, including the endangered spectacled bear, the
only bear found in Latin America. Other amazing wildlife includes the nine-banded
armadillo, the beautiful cock of the rock bird, and the leaf-cutter ant."
Fruit / nut / human food trees:
Yam, Coffee, chocolate, banana, mango, papaya, macadamia, avocado, and sugarcane all
originally came from tropical rainforest
Other info:
About pollination and seed dispersal of rainforest trees in the canopy. Interdependences
between trees, insects, etc.
Links between plants/trees:
Plants pollinated by certain animals often have certain characteristics. For example, flowers
pollinated by birds have brightly colored, cup-shaped flowers, while flowers pollinated by
bats are often white nocturnal blooms with copious amounts of nectar. Flowers pollinated by
flies often have a rotting or mildew-like smell just as "bee-flowers" have a sweet odor.
Butterfly flowers have a mild odor and are red or orange, since butterflies are one of few
insects with good color vision.
Fascinating ways it works:
http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0404.htm
Plants:
epiphytes and lianas
castanharanas tree
brazil nut
piranha tree
annona tree (pollinated by beetles)
Insects:
About the importance of the whole food chain:
Unlike the overstory trees, the trees of the canopy cannot depend on wind for spreading their
seeds, so they rely primarily on animals for dispersal and pollination. Insects are one of the
largest groups responsible for flower pollination because many plant and insect species coevolved together and today play intimate roles in the life cycles of each other. In fact it is
estimated that 30 unique species of insect may be dependent on each species of tree. In turn, a
tree species may be dependent on a number of species to complete its life cycle: a bat for
pollination, and a bird to disperse and process its seeds. If the critical bat or bird is removed
from the system, the tree may no longer propagate and the species may die out in the area.
From:
http://www.marcvanroosmalen.org/images/Illustrated_Guide_to_the_Fruits_an
d_Seeds_of_the_Amazonian_Flora.pdf
Bertholletia excelsia (Colombia) The Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa) is a South American
tree in the family Lecythidaceae, and also the name of the tree's commercially harvested edible
seed. in the order Ericales
Brazil nut trees produce fruit almost exclusively in pristine forests, as disturbed forests lack
the large-body bees of the genera Bombus, Centris, Epicharis, Eulaema, and Xylocopa which
are the only ones capable of pollinating the tree's flowers.[2][3] Brazil nuts have been harvested
from plantations but production is low and it is currently not economically viable.[4][5][6]
The Brazil nut tree's yellow flowers contain very sweet nectar and can only be pollinated by
an insect strong enough to lift the coiled hood on the flower and with a tongue long enough to
negotiate the complex coiled flower. For this reason, the Brazil nut's reproduction depends on
the presence of the orchid Coryanthes vasquezii,[7] which does not grow on the Brazil nut tree
itself.[8] The orchids produce a scent that attracts small male long-tongued orchid bees
(Euglossa spp), as the male bees need that scent to attract females. The large female longtongued orchid bee pollinates the Brazil nut tree. Without the orchid, the bees do not mate,
and therefore the lack of bees means the fruit does not get pollinated.
The capsule contains a small hole at one end, which enables large rodents like the Agouti to gnaw it
open. They then eat some of the nuts inside while burying others for later use; some of these are
able to germinate into new Brazil nut trees. Most of the seeds are "planted" by the Agoutis in shady
places, and the young saplings may have to wait years, in a state of dormancy, for a tree to fall and
sunlight to reach it. It is not until then that it starts growing again. Capuchin monkeys have been
reported to open Brazil nuts using a stone as an anvil.
Cariniana Casaretto or Multiflora (Colombia)