Opportunistic Tree Architecture

Abstract

Trees in the forest rarely exist in the ideal state we have provided for them in our preceding description of architecture. A reader therefore may have had difficulty in recognizing the architectural features we have outlined even with access to tropical species in which there is greatest architectural variety. This is simply because trees rarely conform completely to their model. In the undergrowth of the tropical rain-forests, where microclimatic conditions appear to be optimal for the functioning of trees (Cachan and Duval, 1963), numerous environmental factors still modify their development. Branches are broken mainly by the fall of limbs from trees higher in the canopy, as was shown by Hartshorn (1972) in his study of the population dynamics of Pentaclethra macroloba and Stryphnodendron excelsum in Costa Rica.