Introduction

In this module, we introduce you to the vegetation found in tropical forests. It would be impossible to cover all aspects of the vegetation in a course such as this, so we will focus first on the characteristics of the plants found in tropical forests before looking at a selection of the more widely spread plant families. We then look at some of the more local or more interesting families. Finally we look at fungi and some microorganisms.

This module is not intended to teach you how to identify the vegetation found in tropical forests. However, it is likely that you will need to learn how to identify the more important species in the area in which you are working. To do so, you will need to understand how to use vegetation keys, and you will also need access to good floras. These exist for some areas, but by no means all. In the presentations dealing with major plant families, we have provided some of the key diagnostics for each family. This assumes a certain amount of basic botanical knowledge. If you are unfamiliar with the terms that are used, we recommend:

Beentjie, H. 2012. The Kew Plant Glossary. An illustrated Dictionary of Plant Terms. 2^nd edition. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK: Kew Publishing.

We consider that field skills are essential if you are working in forest management. You will acquire some of these in the field component of this course, but the majority will be acquired ‘on the job’. Without these skills, you will experience considerable difficulty. Plant identification is critical since plants for the basis of the habitat for other living organisms.