The forest floor and understory do not receive much light, which also makes it difficult for plants to survive there. Next, is the problem of very heavy rains which continue over a large part of the year. Finally, many plants of the rainforest are food for animals that live there. The biggest problem that rainforest plants have to adapt to is the lack of sunlight in the rainforest s lower levels. Plants have adapted to this problem in several ways.
Many plants have very large leaves.
Large leaves are helpful because they have more surface area. The more surface area a leaf has, the more sunlight it can absorb. The canopy trees adapt by growing to be 100 feet tall so that their leaves can grab all available sunlight. Still other plants, such as epiphytes, have adapted by growing directly on the trees trunks and branches in the canopy and understory layers of the rainforest . An adaptation to the large amounts of rainfall that many rainforest plants have is called drip tips .