[Aroid-l] Epiphyllums/Off topic

From: Thomas.Croat at mobot.org (Tom Croat) on 2008.05.05 at 20:21:50(17555) Dear Steve: The term "rain forest" is not a standard or formal designation. In the Holdridge Life Zone System which I use the term "rain forest" is used in a variety of designations. A standard range of wetness would range from Tropical dry forest to Premontane dry forest to Tropical moist forest, Premontane wet forest, Tropical wet forest, Tropical rain forest, Premontane rain forest, Lower montane rainforest, Montane rain forest. The effective degree of wetness is the critical feature and may be owing to a lot of rain or a cooler temperature and thus a reduced amount of transevaporation so that a single life zone could range form sea level to 2000 m depending on the amount of precipitation. Pluvial lowland forest is the wettest, hottest and is rather restricted, known only from NW S. America in Colombia where it may rain 36 feet a year. Tom +More ________________________________ From: aroid-l-bounces at gizmoworks.com [mailto:aroid-l-bounces at gizmoworks.com] On Behalf Of ExoticRainforest Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 9:31 AM To: Discussion of aroids Subject: [Aroid-l] Epiphyllums/Off topic I appreciate that Julius. But I never intended to start a non-aroid discussion on Aroid l. I have sent a note to Dr. Croat in hopes he will provide me with a better description of what is scientifically understood to be a rain forest. Steve Lucas www.ExoticRainforest.com Dear Friends, I am NOT a Cactus person, but will add my two cents to this mix. It appears that this ''debate'' is now centered around the narrow determination of the difference between a ''rain forest'' and a ''tropical deciduous forest". Being from Trinidad, and having traveled in Fr. Guyana, I can assure all that tree-growing Cacti I am familiar with, in most cases do NOT make a distinction, and that they do not suddenly stop growing or existing in what the experts consider ''true rain forests''. I have seen climbing epiphitic Cacti high in the wet canopy, who knows what genera they may be determined to belong to once they are collected, and Taxonomists get their hands on them. If, as it is being said, the range of the Cactus genus Epiphyllum is from Southern Mexico, all of Central America, and all down the Western side of S. America, I can assure all that in many of these areas, especially in Panama and W. Colombia, W. Bolivia and W. Brazil there are REAL rain forests with Cacti growing in them, I don`t know how many species and of what genera they may be! The discussion also got turned around, as it was Steve who was ''warning'' that the cacti in question would NOT tollerate a freeze, the other guy twisted this around to say that Steve had written that they WOULD take low temps./freezes. My two cents. Julius Boos WPB, FLORIDA -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/private/aroid-l/attachments/20080505/98f825b9/attachment-0001.htm

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