Amazon rainforest

The Amazon rainforest is the largest tropical rainforest in the world.

The forest is in a basin drained mainly by the Amazon River, with 1,100 tributaries. It is a moist broadleaf forest which covers 7,000,000 square kilometres (2,700,000 sq mi). Of this, 5,500,000 square kilometres (2,100,000 sq mi) are covered by the rainforest.

This region includes territory from nine nations. Most of the forest is in Brazil, with 60% of the rainforest, followed by Peru with 13%, and Colombia with 10%. Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana have just a small amount of rainforest.^[1]

The Amazon has over half of the planet's rainforest area.^[2] It has many species of plants some include rosewood, mahogany and ebony. It is the largest and most species-rich tract of tropical rainforest in the world.^[3] The forest was formed at least 55 million years ago, in the Eocene period.^[4]

1. ↑ "Amazon Rainforest Facts". SoftSchools.com. April 20, 2016. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
2. ↑ "WNF: Places: Amazon". Retrieved 4 June 2016.
3. ↑ "Field Museum scientists estimate 16,000 tree species in the Amazon". Field Museum. 17 October 2013. Archived from the original on 7 December 2019. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
4. ↑ "MSN". www.msn.com. Retrieved 2024-09-11.