Nature: Plants

The Chine is famous for its flora and fauna. There are at least 150 varieties of wild plants and more than 50 species of moss and liverworts have so far been recorded, some of them extremely rare. Ferns, grasses, wild garlic, horsetails, golden saxifrage, wild fuchsia, winter-flowering heliotrope - to name but a few - all grow in profusion.

Gunnera manicata

Gunnera manicata (bottom left and bottom right) is native to the Serra do Mar mountains of south-eastern Brazil. This is one of the four areas in the Chine where it grows with leaves typically 150 to 300cm (5 to 6ft) wide, borne on thick, succulent leaf stalks up to 2.5m (8ft) long. It germinates best in very moist, but not wet, conditions and temperatures of 22 to 29 °C.

Liverworts

Liverworts were the first plants able to live out of water, and they must still have very wet conditions, which is assured here by the continuous spray from the waterfall. Liverworts have no roots, but are attached to the ground by numerous elongated cells, called rhizoids.

Mosses

Mosses are very like liverworts in several ways but they do have simple stems and small leaves.

Ferns

These are more advanced than mosses and liverworts, as they have real roots and stems with vessels to carry water and food. so they can live in much drier situations.

More detailed information about the flora can be found in the Nature Trail leaflet.