ABSTRACT
The tropical rain forest is a plant formation whose chief characteristics are that it is an evergreen, broadleaved forest very diverse in both plant life forms and plant and animal species, and found typically near the equator in hot, ever-wet climates. The name ‘tropical rain forest’ is unfortunate, for it is better to define vegetation by its own attributes rather than by those of its environment. This leads to ridiculous terms such as ‘dry rain forest’, but the term ‘tropical rain forest’ is probably too well established to change. It should be noted immediately that all the characteristics mentioned above may on occasion be absent, singly at least. There are tropical rain forests which are not fully evergreen, others which are not fully broadleaved, and some which are not very diverse. The distribution of the tropical rain forest extends well away from the equator and even sometimes outside the tropics (e.g. in eastern Australia). It certainly occurs in climates with up to a four-month dry season.
