Climb up for a closer look at life in some treetop water tanks.
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Climb up for a closer look at life
in some treetop water tanks.
by Deborah Churchman and Ellen Lambeth
C HECK OUT THIS BRANCH,
high on a tree in a tropical for-
est. Those thick, pale-green leaves
and pink flowers you see are not part
of the tree. They’re bromeliads (broh-
MEE-lee-adz).
Most bromeliads are epiphytes
(EH-puh-fites)—plants that grow on
trees. The stiff, waxy leaves on this
and many other bromeliads grow
to form a cup in their center. The
cup collects and holds rain and dew
Here’s a bromeliad
drops. That’s why they’re called tank
you should know!
bromeliads: They hold water where Pineapples are the
tree-dwelling animals can get to it. fruits of a bromeliad
Turn the page to meet some visitors that people grow as
to these treetop tanks. crops.
14 CYRIL RUOSO/BIOSPHOTO (14-15); ANTOINE BOUREAU/BIOSPHOTO (15BR) 15
makes tropical treetops a very
lively place.
Magical
Mini-Worlds
Some treetop tanks are tiny
cups, while others are like big
bowls. A single tank brome-
liad may hold as much as two
gallons of water! Leaves and
other pieces of plants plop into
bromeliad pools. Wind blows
in dust and other forest bits.
Like its raccoon relative, A colony of ants has made its Uh-oh, is that hungry crab
the coati (koh-AH-tee) will nest in the thick base of the above looking for some tasty
eat just about anything. bromeliad below. Here, you tadpoles? The poison frog
This big bromeliad may can see some of the adults parent seems to be warning,
provide a meal of worms, and young. “Stay in your own pool!”
bugs, berries, or visiting Meanwhile, the marsupial
lizards and mice. frog at right releases
babies from her back into a
bromeliad pool.
THE HIGH LIFE form a roof-like layer called
The tropical forests in Cen- the canopy. Below the canopy, And some animals use the
tral and South America have the forest may be dark and pools as toilets. As all this stuff
huge trees that grow high into dry. But sunlight brightens the slowly rots, it turns into a kind
the sky. Their top branches canopy, and rain and clouds of soupy soil. Tiny hairs on the
reach toward each other to provide moisture. All that leaves soak up minerals from
this rich “soup,” and that helps A bromeliad makes
the plants grow. a cozy spot for the
These high-rise tanks also pit viper at left to
make good homes for insects curl up and relax.
and other tiny creatures. And Its wait may be
bigger animals come to eat the rewarded by a bird,
little ones. As many as 500 dif- lizard, or some
ferent animal species use these other yummy meal
pools. In fact, there may be passing by.
more species of living things in
This wandering spider a single bromeliad pool than in
isn’t wandering far an area of the same size any-
from its bromeliad where else in the world. LUIZ CLAUDIO MARIGO/
MINDEN PICTURES (16T); JAMES
hideout. If it’s lucky, CHRISTENSEN/MINDEN PICTURES
a meal such as a (16BL); MARK MOFFETT/MINDEN
PICTURES (16BR, 17T); MICHAEL
grasshopper might & PATRICIA FOGDEN/MINDEN
PICTURES (17M); PETE OXFORD/
16 hop near. MINDEN PICTURES (17B) > 17
LIFE GOES ON
As you can see, bromeliads
make great wildlife hangouts.
Some animals stop by to drink,
eat, hide, rest, bathe, or cool MEET NALINI NADKARNI. sturdy high-up branch.
off. Others may spend their She began climbing the trees Next, she uses the
whole lives there. in her Maryland backyard as fishing line to pull a rope
A bromeliad even makes a a kid. And she’s been climb- over the branch. Then she
perfect nursery. A mosquito, for ing into tropical forest cano- climbs the rope, using special
example, may lay her eggs in a pies as a scientist her whole clamps and a harness to sit
This cutaway view shows To explore the treetops,
bromeliad pool. When the lar- adult life. Nalini studies in. She remembers the first
an orange nectar bat first you have to get
vas hatch, they munch on mini- everything she sees in these time she tried this. “From my
sticking its long tongue in a there! Here, Nalini inches
meals already in there. And bromeliad flower to lap up treetops, but her main inter- perch at the top of the tree, I
some larvas become meals for est is bromeliads and other could see for miles. I began her way up by rope.
its nectar.
other animals. epiphytes. How does she get to yell with excitement!”
up in a tree that’s more than Now, Nalini works most cited about science study and
Certain kinds of frogs lay 100 feet high (higher than a of the year teaching college exploration. Every summer,
A violet-crowned their eggs in treetop pools. 10-story building)? It all starts science. She also works with her family travels to Central
woodnymph zips Others lay their eggs down with a slingshot. communities to bring science America, where Nalini can
over to these below. Then, depending on the That’s what she uses to to other people. She even continue to climb and learn—
bright bromeliad species, the mom or dad frogs shoot a fishing line with a made a “TreeTop Barbie” doll and yell with excitement from
flowers in search piggyback their just-hatched weight on the end over a to help get young girls ex- the treetops. =
of sweet nectar. tadpoles up to a pool. Some
frogs even raise their young in Nalini hoisted this
pouches on their backs. When platform into the treetop
the time is right, little froglets and secured it. Now
pop out and into a treetop pool. she can use it as a base
When bromeliads sprout while exploring from
flowers, hummingbirds come branch to branch.
to sip their nectar by day, while
bats do the same at night. As
these birds and bats feed, they
collect pollen on their feathers
or fur. Then the pollen brushes
off on other flowers, helping
the bromeliads make fruit and
seeds. It’s the perfect way to
make sure there will always be
plenty of treetop tanks for all!
MERLIN D. TUTTLE/SCIENCE SOURCE (18T) >;
18 GREGORY BASCO/GTPHOTO (18BL); SYBIL GOTSCH (19T, 19B) 19
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