AMAZON FOREST
The Amazonian flora is still virtually unknown, with a great potential of plants used for landscaping, and consists mainly of herbaceous plants of rare beauty, belonging to the families of Araceae, Heliconiaceae, Marantaceae, Rubiaceae, among others. This herbaceous flora, besides the ornamental appearance, whether the shape or the color of the inflorescence, plays vital role in balancing the ecosystem.As an example, we have the heliconia, with a wide variety of species with colorful flowers. Are marked presence in our forests and wetlands have an important role in ecological balance. On the American continent, the heliconia are exclusively pollinated by hummingbirds, which in turn are the major drivers of organic straw Phletbotomus mosquito, transmitter of leishmaniasis, a very abundant in the Amazon deforested. Feeding the hummingbirds come to be up to 80% of the nectar of heliconia during flowering species.
With few herbaceous species and most species with large, lush palm trees has a presence in the riverine forests, wetlands and mountains, forming a special emphasis on the Amazon landscape. Many Amazonian palm trees, as tucumã, inajá, Buritirana, peach palm, caioué and other species of unknown classification were little or no use for landscaping.
As for the trees, the vast sea of green Amazon has an incalculable number of species. Some of them are endemic in certain areas of forest have been or are being destroyed indiscriminately, without their properties are known. Among the most popular trees used for landscaping, are the visgueiro the ingás, kapok, many species of fig, the taxizeiros, gizzard mutum of the rubber and the balm.
Growing up under the tropical rainforest trees, are epiphytes, such as bromeliads, orchids, cacti and imbés. These plants are important for wildlife that lives exclusively in the branches and treetops. Among the animals that are within the epiphytic community, we have monkeys, marmosets. the ocelots, cats-do-mato, lizards, macaws, parrots, toucans and many others who specialize in this habitat, above the ground. With the cutting of trees, epiphytes disappear and with them, the entire fauna.
Many of these epiphytic plants of rare beauty were very well portrayed by the painter Margaret Mee, during the various tours that took place in the Amazon rainforest. Once abundant in some areas, nowadays most of these plants is in small populations.
Certainly the Amazon region has a huge potential for timber plants used for landscaping and plant species with substances for medical use. But it is necessary that resources be maintained so renewable. The Amazon forest shows that the indiscriminate harvesting only desertification, as it is maintained by the humus layer on a fresh soil, often sandy.
Therefore, it is essential to use the forest in a rational way. Exploiting it, but renewing it with the same native species, and especially preserving the regions of the sanctuaries of flora and fauna, will be worth that much, so the ecological balance, as rainfall patterns and use for tourism.
