In the heart of Singapore Botanic Gardens on a humid Saturday afternoon, a group of students from NUS’ Applied Biogeography module trek along a beaten cement path as the sounds of various birds and insects fill the air. Their professor eagerly calls them over to look at a palm tree, its pleated leaves larger than their faces. “So here you see an example of adaptation, where the understory foliage has larger leaves for more sunlight,” Professor Gretchen explains excitedly as the rest listen with great interest. The plant in question, with a quick iNaturalist identification, turned out to be the Vanuatu Fan Palm (Fig 1), a common species found in the understory layer of tropical forests. Its large leaves allow for the tree to absorb more sunlight due to the low sunlight penetration in the understory, while its pleated texture helps the plant save energy. Such is an example of the unique adaptation strategies that different species adopt to help them survive in the forest.

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