CANOPY
The canopy layer is the primary layer of the forest. The canopy is where more species live than anyplace else in the rainforest, it is also the denser layer of greenery about 20 feet thick formed by the next tallest trees. It acts like a roof over the rest of the rainforest. This roof is not, however, solid like the roof of a house. It is partially permeable. Its leaves and branches absorb and deflect much of the sunlight pouring downward, letting only a little through. Result: the lower parts of the rainforest are dim and greenish, with only scattered flecks of direct sun.In much the same way, the canopy shuts out most wind and breaks up falling raindrops. A heavy downpour beating onto the top of the canopy roof has, by the time it reaches the lower levels of the rainforest, been turned into a fine rain accompanied by sheets of water streaming down the tree trunks.When you enter the canopy you leave behind the open, changeable emergent world, and enter a very different place: much darker and more unvarying, a place of dense enclosing greenery and high humidity.​
