Not much sunlight reaches this part of the forest, which is a little cooler and wetter than the canopy, the next layer up. These tree tops are usually 50 to 100 feet above the forest floor. Sloths and butterflies and most other rainforest animals live in this layer. Flowering plants like bromeliads and orchids grow on tree trunks and branches in the canopy. Mahogany trees grow in the canopy, but they are so valuable for their wood that most of them have been cut down.
Fig trees grow there, too.
The canopy is hot and a little drier than the understory and the forest floor. Trees and other plants in the canopy absorb most of the energy that comes from sunlight falling on the forest. In the same process, they create sugar and starch, and their leaves, fruit, and bark become food for human beings and animals. A small number of the very tallest trees grow taller than the canopy. The crowns of these giant trees are the emergent layer.