‘Chapter 2
STRUCTURAL
'S OF THE RAIN FOREST.
P.8, TOMLINSON
INTRODUCTION: method of climbing, or the epiphytes according to
their water economy, or the herbs according to
their method of vegetative spread.
ural an
d to diffe
ses Of tropical rain forest may
levels of resolution. This ac
inly with the major tropical rain
Is, Le; trees, and atlempistoestab- ARCHITECTURE:
compo
¢ immediately obvious processes involved in Following Hallé and Oldeman (1970) and Hallé
lopment, An analysis of the architecttire al, (1978) it is recognized that each individual
dividual trees provides the analytical too! for species has a precise and genetically determined
Reassessment of plant thterdetion. This assessment growth plan or architectural model, while the ex
gross morphological diversity is a fesumé of the pression of this growth plan at any. one develop=
h adopted by Hallé ét al (1978) Detailed PENG stage may be said to represent the wrchi-
phological accounts of the biological con- tecture of the plant. These concepts differ from
of rain forest plants are found in Schnell (you implied in the general terms life-form or
‘ore (1975), Longman and Jenik growth habit in that the latter are both, ee
bove-ground parts are considered concepts and refer to the end-product — e.s
y detail. The architecture and interaction of shrab, soe
stems in the rain forest have been sum- 14 ogni
marized re
common lite-form:
(1) Canopy trees (including
Richards, 1957)
(2) Understorey trees
) Shrubs a
(4 Lianes or woody climb
stranglers)
(5) Unierstorey herbs
(6) Vascular epiphytes
CO) Vaseular parasi
(8) Vascular sapropl
Each of these may be eaps
subdivision, e.g, ‘the’ IP.B. TOMLINSON
gp contrast, in natural environments
disturbance. TT jay not conform to its architectur
dhe tree may gn tbe exten (0 wien (He Pina
depend Sful cireumstances, as BY StOrm or
yee or by crown interaction. Fallow.
1974) we hrave to add the concept of
srowth response to environmental
grow analysis of tree architecture,
as when broken
as when existing
be traumatic,
stored, of adaptiv
4, The normal reiterative re-
reorientated
ms, which are not ex-
|, to develop and in
chitecture of
lest and most
ie substitution of a
ier by a latent , but the kinds
;compassed in the concept of
nd yaried. In many conifers
ly part of the original
is repeated as, for example. the plagtotropic
‘ches in Araucaria (Veillon, 1978), The reiter-
ative ability of a tree is probably as important an
ecological parameter as architecture itself, if not
greater, but varies enormously. At one end of the
scale there is no possibility of reiteration, as with