There are more species of plants and animals in the tropical rain forests than all of the world's other ecosystems combined. Trees in the tropical rain forests make up 70 percent of the plant species and can grow up to 200 feet tall. The crowns, or tops, of these trees form a covering of leaves above the ground called the upper canopy. The crowns of smaller trees form the lower canopy. For this reason, only a few bushes and herbs can grow on the forest floor.
Most jungles grow near rivers or former clearings.
Thundershowers occur more than 200 days a year, and the air beneath the lower canopy is always humid. The trees in tropical rain forests give off water through the pores of their leaves. This process is called transpiration , which supplies as much as half of the rain in the Amazon rain forest. There is a great variety of animal life in tropical rain forests. More birds, amphibians, mammals, reptiles, and insects live here that anywhere else in the world.