Plants are the most obvious of life forms to the casual visitor to the Australian tropical rainforest; indeed, for many people this may be initially all they can see.
While they vary enormously, most are linked by their ability to make their own food through the use of sunlight in a reaction known as 'photosynthesis', which occurs through the most familiar of plant parts, the green leaf.
The tropical rainforests of the Wet Tropics are the richest area of Australia for plant diversity.
There are at least 1160 species of higher plants recorded from the north-eastern Queensland rainforests, with new species being named every year.
The region has also been recognized for it's high endemism; that is many of the species here are found nowhere else.
The bewildering array of forms of the rainforest is presented here in groups according to standard understanding of evolutionary order, that is, with the primitive plants at the beginning, then 'progressing' through to the flowering plants.