Tropical Plant

Tropical Plants

Just because tropical plants are native in the rainforests of the tropics does not mean that you can not enjoy them. Some tropical plants are quite suitable for growing indoors and you can always alter your indoor environment to meet up with the demands of the tropical plant.

Tropical plants are found in the Tropics, an area which is geographically concentrated on the equator and stretches to the tropic of Cancer in the north, and to the tropic of Capricorn in the south. What makes it tropical is that the sun at least once a year reaches a point directly overhead in the sky, something that does not happen north of the tropic of Cancer, nor south of the tropic of Capricorn.

The area in which tropical plants grow is known for its intense heat and eternal moist climate. Lush rainforests are a good sign and a perfect place to find tropical plant, or maybe just that tropical plant that you are looking for. But there are also other vegetations that have tropical plants, areas that you would not think did. Thinking of jungle as tropical and the only home for tropical plants is a common mistake. So called arctic tundra, as in the Andes or Kilimanjaro, is also host to what is called tropical plants.

Tropical plants are bound to seasons and while most of us think of winter and summer as seasons, the tropical plant is more concerned about the wet season and the dry season. A rain belt of massive thunderstorms moves back and forth over the equator during the passing of one year. Therefore one half of the year is dry season in the northern tropics, when the southern equivalent enjoys a wet season, and the other half is wet season, when the rain belt moves north and leaves the south to a dry season. This phenomenon affects all tropical plants and should be accounted for while growing them in an unnatural environment. This also gives the area close to the equator two dry seasons and two wet seasons as the rain belt pass over twice a year. That fact should be accounted for when growing tropical plants originated from areas close to the equator.

The rainforests of the tropics are endangered and that is a huge problem not only to the tropical plants and tropical animal life. Much of modern medicine has originated from chemicals naturally found in tropical plants and many are worried that if the rainforest is destroyed, so is a natural resource for curing serious diseases such as HIV or cancer. This might sound like a bit much but biomedicine is nowadays a huge and acknowledged scientific subject and research has touched diseases as Alzheimer’s and the common cold. So it is not all that loony to explore the health giving properties of tropical plants.

Tropical Plant - Aloe

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