Creature Feature Encyclopedia: Plants

Bromeliad Navia arida

Bromeliads grow on trees and on the forest floor. Every time it rains, tiny puddles collect inside the plant's radiant red center. When the temperature in the rainforest gets very warm, the center of the plant closes to save the precious water. Some frogs have discovered that these puddles are quite safe places to raise their young! Fortunately for the frogs, more than two thousand different kinds of bromeliads thrive in Central and South America.

~A Walk in the Rainforest © 1992