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<title><![CDATA[plants news from mongabay.com]]></title>
<link>http://www.mongabay.com</link>
<description><![CDATA[plants news.]]></description>
<language>en-us</language>
<copyright>Copyright 2006 mongabay.com</copyright>
<pubDate>Sun, 15 Oct 2008 12:58:39 -0800</pubDate>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[New tree species discovered in Amazon biodiversity hotspot]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[I was walking down the Anaconda Trail at the Madre Selva Biological Station with botanist Rodolfo Vasquez when he suddenly stopped, stared at the bark of a 120-foot tree, and started searching the ground. Odd behavior? Perhaps, but when you're with Peru's top field botanist, odd behavior is forgivable, since it means that something interesting is probably afoot.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0817-amazonas_new_tree.html</link>
<pubDate>Sun, 17 Aug 2008 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0817-amazonas_new_tree.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Account of 18th century Amazon adventurer to be published for the first time]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[After establishing his ingenious classification system in 1735, Carl Linnaeus, the greatest naturalist of his era, sent young and eager followers to all parts of the world to help him in the goal of collecting and cataloguing the world's species. It was a project unlike any before; Swedish naturalists, often referred to as Linnaeus's apostles, roamed as far as Japan, South America, Australia, and the Arctic with the same goal in mind&#8212;describing species according to Linnaeus's system.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0811-hance_rolander.html</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 11 Aug 2008 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0811-hance_rolander.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[20% of the Brazilian Amazon's tree species to go extinct]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A new study estimates the number of trees that will go extinct in the Brazilian Amazon due to habitat loss.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0811-hance_amazon.html</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 11 Aug 2008 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0811-hance_amazon.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Global warming causes plants to move to higher elevations]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Global warming has caused many plant species to move to higher elevations, report researchers writing in the journal <i>Science</i>.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0626-plants.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0626-plants.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Elephants may explain Mount Kilimanjaro's bamboo enigma]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[At nearly 6,000 meters in height, Mount Kilimanjaro is both Africa's tallest mountain and the world's highest solitary peak, home to a diverse range of habitats that support a large variety of plant species. Yet, unlike any other mountain in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro contains no bamboo.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0624-hance_bamboo.html</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 25 Jun 2008 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0624-hance_bamboo.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Global warming threatens California's native plants]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Two-thirds of California's native plants could suffer an 80 percent or more reduction in geographic range by the end of the century due to changing climate warns a study appearing tomorrow in the open-access journal PLoS ONE.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0624-california.html</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 24 Jun 2008 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0624-california.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Hunting, deforestation wipe out 6 of 7 hornbill species in Borneo park]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Logging, forest conversion for palm oil, and hunting have triggered a precipitous drop in key wildlife populations in Malaysia's Lambir Hills National Park, on the island of Borneo, said a biologist speaking at a scientific conference in Paramaribo, Suriname.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0614-harrison.html</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 14 Jun 2008 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0614-harrison.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[New discoveries about past forest changes may help predict future ones in a changing climate]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[There is no better method to understand the future than to look to the past. Several new studies of the earth's glacial history are transforming the way scientists look at tree behvaior during extreme changes in climate. Scientists Remj Petit, Feng Sheng Hu, and Christopher Dick described such changes in relation to current global warming in the new issue of the journal Science. They report that already "in some parts of the world, tree species have started to shift their distributions in response to anthropogenic climatic warming", thus raising the stakes for understanding how tree species will adapt to coming changes.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0612-hance_forest_history.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 12 Jun 2008 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0612-hance_forest_history.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Lemurs are key to health of Madagascar's rainforests]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Lemurs play a key role in the health of Madagascar's tropical rainforests said a renowned primatologist speaking at a meeting of conservation biologists in Paramaribo, Suriname.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0612-madagascar.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 12 Jun 2008 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0612-madagascar.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Reforestation a growing, but complicated, initiative]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[As the rate of deforestation continues apace &#8212; 13 million hectares per year in a global basis &#8212; several countries have begun to look at reforesting degraded areas to aid suffering biodiversity, indigenous groups, and small local economies. However most of the interest and activity surrounding reforestation is as a tool to mitigate climate change. A new program just launched by the Nature Conservancy and several local partners plans to plant a billion trees in the fragmented Atlantic Forest of Brazil. The United Nations Environmental Program has already planted over two billion trees worldwide and plans to plant five billion more. China has planted billions more.  However effective reforestation is not proving as easy as simply planting trees and waiting for them to grow, in fact, sometimes it may be best to leave the whole process to nature.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0612-hance_chazdon.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 12 Jun 2008 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0612-hance_chazdon.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Colombia creates rainforest reserve to protect medicinal plants]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Colombia today announced the creation of a rainforest reserve dedicated to the protection of medicinal plants. The Orito Ingi-Ande Medicinal Flora Sanctuary encompasses 10,626 hectares of biologically-rich tropical rainforest ranging in altitude from 700 to 3300 meters above sea level.  The sanctuary is based on an initiative launched by local indigenous communities with the support of the Amazon conservation Team (ACT), an innovative NGO working with native peoples to conserve biodiversity, health, and culture in South American rainforests.  Members of the communities &#8212; which include the Kof&aacute;n, Inga, Siona, Kamts&aacute;, and Coreguaje tribes &#8212; combined their rich knowledge of medicinal plants with cutting-edge technology to determine the placement and extent of the reserve.  Their contributions to the effort are reflected in the name of the reserve, according to ACT.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0612-colombia.html</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 11 Jun 2008 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0612-colombia.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Group files for ESA protection of 681 species in 12 states]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[On March 19th WildEarth Guardians filed a lawsuit to place 681 species under the Endangered Species Act.  Dr. Nicole Rosmarino, wildlife program director for the environmental group, says These 681 species represent species in only 12 states, include no subspecies, and are only the "most imperiled" of the United State's threatened species.  Rosmarino estimates that in total there are 6,000-9,000 endangered species in the United States today. Mongabay.com recently caught up with Dr. Rosmarino regarding this landmark lawsuit and the reasoning for it.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0521-hance_interview_rosmarino.html</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 21 May 2008 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0521-hance_interview_rosmarino.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Defaunation, like deforestation, threatens global biodiversity]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Loss of wildlife is a subtle but growing threat to tropical forests, says a leading plant ecologist from Stanford University. Speaking in an interview with mongabay.com, Dr. Rodolfo Dirzo says that the disappearance of wildlife due to overexploitation, fragmentation, and habitat degradation is causing ecological changes in some of the world's most biodiverse tropical forests.  He ranks defaunation &#8212; as he terms the ongoing biological impoverishment of forests &#8212; as one of the world's most significant global changes, on par with environmental changes like global warming, deforestation, and shifts in the nitrogen cycle.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0520-interview_dirzo.html</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 20 May 2008 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0520-interview_dirzo.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Insect diversity in the tropics greater than previously believed]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[The tropics are more biodiverse than previously believed, report researchers writing in the journal <i>Science</i>.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0515-insects.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 15 May 2008 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0515-insects.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Biodiversity key to fighting climate change]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Scientists from Brown University have discovered that an ecosystem's productivity is directly linked to its diversity of plant species.  The discovery has granted biodiversity new importance in the fight against climate change: the more productive the ecosystem the more carbon it captures.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0429-hance_biodiv.html</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 29 Apr 2008 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0429-hance_biodiv.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Giant exploding palm tree discovered in Madagascar]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A gigantic palm that flowers itself to death and exists as part of an entirely unique genus has been discovered in Madagascar; its name will be published in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society on 17 January 2008. The mystery palm has a huge trunk which towers over 18m high and fan leaves which are 5m in diameter - among the largest known in flowering plants. This is the most massive palm ever to be found in Madagascar.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0117-palm.html</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 17 Jan 2008 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0117-palm.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Amazon plant diversity still a mystery]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[The Amazon is one of the few places on the earth that still evokes an accurate sense of mystery.  While the Taiga, Antarctica, and Sahara may compare to the Amazon in wilderness size, none hold the same mystique of unknown species.  It is believed that one third of the world's species inhabits this tropical rainforest.  The only region comparable in mystery (though not in species) may be the world's oceans.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/1021-hance_amazon.html</link>
<pubDate>Sun, 21 Oct 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/1021-hance_amazon.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Orchids may have co-existed with dinosaurs]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Orchids are old enough to have co-existed with dinosaurs, report Harvard University scientists.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0829-orchids.html</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 29 Aug 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0829-orchids.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[U.S. grazing lands at risk due to rising CO2 levels]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Rising carbon dioxide levels could cause significant changes to open grazing lands and rangelands around the world, reports a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0827-rangelands.html</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 27 Aug 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0827-rangelands.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Climate change is making poison ivy worse]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[New research shows that climate change is making poison ivy more potent, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0626-wsj.html</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 26 Jun 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0626-wsj.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Rainforest trees colonized Africa from the Amazon]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A giant rainforest tree is helping scientists understand similarities between African and South American rainforests, reports research published in the journal Molecular Ecology.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0624-kapok.html</link>
<pubDate>Sun, 24 Jun 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0624-kapok.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Plants in outer space may be black]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Plants in outer space could be black if they is mechanisms other than chlorophyll to harness the energy of the sun, reports a new study published in Astrobiology.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0620-outer_space.html</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 20 Jun 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0620-outer_space.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Carnivorous plants invade San Francisco]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[While most plants derive nutrients from soil, some trap and consume living creatures for their primary source of sustenance.  Now a special exhibit at the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers offers a journey into the strange world of carnivorous plants.]]></description>
<link>http://travel.mongabay.com/us/sf_conservatory/150/IMG_1710.JPG</link>
<pubDate>Sun, 13 May 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://travel.mongabay.com/us/sf_conservatory/150/IMG_1710.JPG</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Climate shift in East Africa due to geology, not global climate change]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A shift towards a drier climate in East Africa may be due to geological changes like the emergence of the Rift Valley, not global climate change suggests research published in the current issue of the journal Nature. Dr. Bonnie Jacobs, Chair of Environmental Science Program at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas, reports that the rise of the high Ethiopian plateau may have caused dramatic shifts in the region's vegetation.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0511-jacobs.html</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 11 May 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0511-jacobs.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Tropical plants may be more adaptable to climate change]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Tropical plants may be more adaptable to environmental change by extracting nitrogen from a variety of sources, reports a study published in the May 7 early online edition of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0507-plants.html</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 07 May 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0507-plants.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Climate change could dramatically change forests in Central America]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Drought could cause dramatic shifts in rainforest plant communities in Central America, reports a new study published in the May 3 issue of Nature.  The research shows that many rainforest plants are ill-equipped to deal with extended dry periods, putting them at elevated risk from changes in climate projected for the region.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0502-stri.html</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 02 May 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0502-stri.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Neon green gecko key to preventing Mauritian plant extinction]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A vibrantly colored gecko plays a key role in a highly threatened ecological community in Mauritius reports new research published in American Naturalist. Studying plant-animal interactions in Mauritius, an Indian Ocean island famous for its extinct dodo bird, researchers found that a rare plant, Trochetia blackburniana, benefits from its proximity to Pandanus plants because they house high densities of geckos responsible for pollination.  The findings, which unusually identify a lizard as a key pollinator, are significant because they provide "valuable management insights for ongoing conservation efforts to save the highly endangered flora of Mauritius.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0417-gecko.html</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 17 Apr 2007 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0417-gecko.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Indigenous populations deforested New World rainforests before European contact]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Indigenous populations used fire to clear large areas of tropical forest well before the arrival of Europeans reports a new study published in Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden.  The research has important implications for understanding the impact of present forest development on biodiversity and forest regeneration in the tropics.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0228-stri.html</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 28 Feb 2007 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0228-stri.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Rainforest tree diversity may be tied to seed dispersal]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[A new study says tree distribution in the rainforest is highly dependent on species' method of seed dispersal.  The research could help explain how a large number of rainforest trees can coexist in a small area.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/1128-rainforest.html</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 28 Nov 2006 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/1128-rainforest.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[New species of orchids discovered in Papua New Guinea]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Last month, environmental group WWF announced the discovery of eight orchid species previously unknown to science in the tropical forests of Papua New Guinea (PNG).  PNG, which covers roughly half the island of New Guinea, has the more species of orchid than any country in the world.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/1117-wwf.html</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 17 Nov 2006 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/1117-wwf.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Insect diversity in rainforests results from plant biodiversity]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[The high diversity of leaf-eating insect species in tropical forests results from the large number of plant species that exist in these ecosystems, according to new research published in the current issue of the journal Science.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0718-stri.html</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 18 Jul 2006 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0718-stri.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[How Plants Respond to Elevated Carbon Dioxide]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[An important source of uncertainty in predictions about global warming is how plants will respond to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide. Now biologists at the University of California, San Diego have made significant advances toward understanding the mechanism plants use to regulate their carbon dioxide intake. The researchers say that their findings provide important insights into the cellular and genetic mechanisms through which increasing carbon dioxide emissions will impact the world's vegetation.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0501-ucsd.html</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 02 May 2006 05:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0501-ucsd.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Plants face extinction threat due to lack of sex]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[The decline of birds, bees and other pollinators may be putting plants at risk of extinction according to a new study.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0116-pollination.html</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 16 Jan 2006 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0116-pollination.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Pollination networks may play key role in extinction]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[As animal extinctions continue at the rate of one every 16 years, it's unclear how declining biodiversity will disturb ecosystem dynamics. Of special concern are the pollinators, essential players in the reproductive biology of plants, the earth's primary producers.]]></description>
<link>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0104-plos.html</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 04 Jan 2006 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0104-plos.html</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Seeds and Fruits]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Many of the seeds and fruits produced by canopy trees fall to the ground where they provide food for seed gatherers (rodents, birds, fish, etc) and create a natural seed bank in the leaf litter. There are two growth strategies once seeds reach the ground. One strategy is to produce large seeds with food reserves enabling the seedling to survive in the low-light conditions of the understory. The second method characteristic of many pioneer species is to produce huge numbers of small seeds which only germinate under certain conditions (usually light gaps). When a light gap opens, these seeds sprout and the seedlings rapidly grow to once again plug the hole in the canopy.]]></description>
<link>http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0503.htm</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 01 Mar 2005 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0503.htm</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Rainforest Canopy - Vines and Lianas]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[Creepers, vines, and lianas (woody vines) are abundant in the canopy and make up a significant proportion of the vegetation in tropical rainforests. There are over 2,500 species of vines from about 90 families [liana distribution]. They range from small, indiscrete vines that grow against the tree to giant lianas thick as trees that seemingly hang in the middle of the forest independent of trees. Some of the larger woody lianas may exceed 3,000 feet in length. Rattan, a liana, is well known for its use in furniture and ropes. Rattan also produces large, edible fruits--a favorite of primates..]]></description>
<link>http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0406.htm</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 01 Mar 2005 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0406.htm</guid>
</item>
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<title><![CDATA[Rainforest Canopy - Epiphytes]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[There are well over 15,000 epiphytes in the neotropical realm alone, and over 30,000 worldwide as well as numerous uncatalogued species. The term epiphytes describes a plant which, like a parasite, grows on a host, but unlike a parasite, takes no nutrients from the tree itself and relies on nutrients from the air, falling rain, and the compost that lies on tree branches. Their epiphytic way of life gives these plants advantages in the rainforest, allowing them access to more direct sunlight, a greater number of canopy animal pollinators, and the possibility of dispersing their seeds via wind. Epiphytes may be familiar to people in temperate climates because many house plants and &quot;air-plants&quot; are actually epiphytes from the rainforest.]]></description>
<link>http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0405.htm</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 01 Mar 2005 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
<source url="http://www.mongabay.com/">Mongabay.com</source>
<guid>http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0405.htm</guid>
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