The Amazon rainforest is a massive part of South America, covering a large portion of Brazil with over half of its forests being in the country.
It covers 7,000,000 kilometers squared spreading across 9 different nations.
The Amazon contains the longest river in the world flowing for over 6,900 kilometers. With this massive supply of water, the Amazon is a home for so many different varieties of wildlife and plants.
Speaking about wildlife and plants, let’s take a look at some of the amazing flowers the rainforest contains.
1. Passion Flower
Due to its southern American roots the passion flowers prefer to grow in warmer conditions.
This means for most countries it only has a chance at growing in the summer months, and may even need a greenhouse, making it slightly harder or more inconvenient to grow.
The passionflower has religious symbolism and represents the crucifixion of Christ.
2. Orchids
Because of their beauty, orchids are one of the most common amazon flowers around the world, but its origins come from the Amazon Rainforest.
Its popularity can be thanked by it being one of the biggest flower families worldwide. The beautiful orchid symbolizes love, luxury, beauty, and strength.
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3. Monkey Brush
The monkey brush is a fantastic plant in the Amazon as it is so brightly colored and stands out among all of the green and brown.
What’s interesting about this flower is that it can grow as a parasite on other plants, or it can grow by itself, it’s also found all around the amazon, by rivers, up in trees and all about other plants.
4. Hot Lips
These small vibrant flowers get their name for being shaped like cartoon lips with a bright red color to accentuate the way they look like lips. Their scientific name is Salvia Microphylla.
Obviously native to the amazon these amazon flowers will need warmer climates to grow in, so in most countries they will need the summer months to bloom in.
5. Achiote
Not only does this amazon flowers grow native to the Amazon, but it also grows in Mexico.
Its scientific name is Bixa Orellana, but it’s also been dubbed the lipstick plant, this could be because it’s used as a dye, particularly in food and has the staining quality like lipstick.
The tree grows to around 12 feet tall and is evergreen so the nice vibrant achiote will be seen all year round.
6. Heliconia
Heliconias are a type of flower that belongs to the heliconiaceae family. There are over 200 different types of heliconia that come from the amazon. The flower is also known as the lobster claw, and this is apparent as to why when observing the plant.
These plants grow to around 15 feet tall when grown in nature, but when grown in a garden or landscape probably looking at heights of around 6 feet. The heliconia is the symbol to keep young and beautiful.
7. Giant Water Lily
This is the biggest variation of the water lily group and the Nymphaeaceae family. Within the Tupi people of Brazil they believe that the water lily is one of the most beautiful plants with their enormous circular leaves.
Their amazing leaves have been known to reach sizes of 3 meters across and are able to support the weight of a small child when on the water. The wonderful water lily is a symbolization of pleasure, harmony, and peace.
8. Bromeliads
This fabulous flowering plant originates from the tropic regions of the Americas, it blooms into vivid shades of pink, red, orange, and yellow. It has over 3,600 different species with as many different ways to care for them.
The flower only blooms once a year and despite being called a flower doesn’t actually grow petals, but brightly colored leaves called bracts. With its thick green foliage, the flower symbolizes protection.
9. Poinsettia
Despite this pretty holiday flower being so heavily associated with Christmas it’s actually native to southern America and a lot of people aren’t aware that it’s a tropical species. With it being a really rich red, it’s clear as to why this became a holiday flower.
This flower will need some extra care to get it to bloom in the winter, holiday months but will definitely be worth it. The lovely flower is the symbol for good cheer and success.
10. Water Lettuce
This plant goes by several different names such as water cabbage, Nile cabbage and even shellflower. Despite this plant not being a typical flower, it does look very similar to one and a nice little bonus to the plant, it’s also edible.
It’s typically found in slower moving bodies of water or even ponds. These days it isn’t very useful for anything but being a simply attractive water feature.
11. Aechmea
Part of the Bromeliaceae family of flower plants, there are around 250 species of the aechmea. It blooms into lovely looking spiked amazon flowers and is commonly grown as a houseplant.
It’s a good houseplant because of how low maintenance and amazing to look at. The beautiful Aechmea gets its symbolism from the value of silver like purity, strength, clarity, and focus.
12. Croton
These wonderful plants have bright and vibrant leaves that grow into a nice bushy plant.
The beauty of this plant is that it can add to the bright, amazing colors and how easy they are to care for, not to mention they can easily be grown all year round.
13. Eugenia
The eugenia is exclusively native to the amazon rainforest but has since become popular worldwide. As the eugenia grows on a bush it’s a great way to create a wonderful privacy barrier.
The eugenia has over 1000 different species and can grow up to 20 feet high. In the right parts of the world the eugenia is evergreen but it can’t survive in freezing temperatures.
14. Cattleya
Cattleyas are a part of the orchidaceae family, but unlike the typical orchid
they grow in a much wider variety of shapes and colors.
Because of how beautiful this type of orchid is it is typically used as corsages. Unlike the typical orchid that symbolizes love, luxury, beauty, and strength, the cattleya symbolizes fertility and virility.
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15. Tetrapterys
Tetrapterys are in the flowering family of the malpighiaceae. These plants come from Mexico, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
Most tetrapterys grow in the form of a shrub, small tree, or a vine, and can have a hallucinogenic effect on humans.
16. Manihot
This shrub belongs to the Euphorbiaceae milkspurge family of plants. Not only is it native to South America but it’s also native to Central America.
Gardeners may grow these because of their leaves as they make a great addition to a garden with their fancy leaves. With over 100 different species and can be used to make a base for alcohol or glue.
17. Cacao, Theobroma
The delightful plant is super close to the cacao plant, except unlike chocolate, the fruit that bears is pulpy and creamy, it usually tastes like a banana or a pear with only hints of chocolate or pineapple.
The fruit was discovered over 2000 years ago by the locals living deep in central America and is used heavily in chocolate production.
18. Banana Tree
The banana tree originates from tropical areas like the amazon. Everyone is familiar with bananas and how popular they are worldwide. The banana tree can reach 10-20 feet tall.
Hands of bananas grow in the 10’s or up to 20 per hand. Due to their popularity bananas have become an important part of a diet for both humans and animals.
19. Coffee Plant
As well as the banana tree, the coffee plant is just as well known and as popular. Not only are the coffee plants native to tropical regions in America but also in tropical regions in Africa and Asia.
Even though coffee doesn’t just grow in South America it is the most popular place where coffee is harvested from. The coffee plant can also grow up to 10 feet tall.
20. Camu Camu Plant
The Camu Camu plant is called several different things like camucamu, cacari, camu-camu, camocamo, or araçá-d’água.
This plant takes its home alongside rivers in the Amazon and produces a fruit that is red and purple that is very similar to a cherry. The plant can reach heights between 3 and 5 meters.
Final Thoughts
The Amazon Rainforest is home to many different kinds of amazon flowers and plants. The flowers that grow in the rainforest come in many different colors, sizes, and types.
With the Amazon Rainforest being as large as it is there are as many as 80,000 different kinds of plant species and over half of them help sustain the rainforest.
Flowers are a big part of the plant life in the amazon and contribute to over 60,000 different kinds of species of flowers making them super important.
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The majority of people who have no interest in the subject, and aren’t green fingered assume that all plants and vegetables require the same growing conditions. This is not the case at all. Each plant has its own unique and interesting history and growing process.
I hope you will find The Natural List useful, and that it will help educate you on the wide variety of different flower and plant species there are across the globe.
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