Murici Ecological Station an average of . The dominant vegetation is dense rainforest in the Atlantic Forest biome. In the best preserved areas, mostly at the higher elevations, the forest forms a fairly uniform closed canopy up to high that provides shade and retains moisture. Tree species include murici ("Byrsonima sericea"), "Schefflera morototoni", "Parkia pendula", "Tabebuia" species, "Pseudobombax" species, "Bowdichia virgilioides", "Tapirira guianensis", "Handroanthus impetiginosus" and "Protium" species. The understory contains seedlings of trees, palms such as "Euterpe catinga", and many lianas and epiphytes, such as "Araceae", "Orchidaceae" ("dimerandra" species, "Dichaea" species, "Rodriguezia" species, "Cattleya labiata", "Pleurothallis" species, "Epidendrum" species, "Oncidium" species and
Flowering plant in exceptional cases. The characteristic feature of angiosperms is the flower. Flowers show remarkable variation in form and elaboration, and provide the most trustworthy external characteristics for establishing relationships among angiosperm species. The function of the flower is to ensure fertilization of the ovule and development of fruit containing seeds. The floral apparatus may arise terminally on a shoot or from the axil of a leaf (where the petiole attaches to the stem). Occasionally, as in violets, a flower arises singly in the axil of an ordinary foliage-leaf. More typically, the flower-bearing portion of the plant is sharply distinguished from