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Tropical horticulture is a branch of horticulture that studies and cultivates plants in the tropics, i.e., the equatorial regions of the world. "TropHort" is an abbreviation for Tropical Horticulture. Tropical Horticulture covers plants such as perennial woody plants (arboriculture), ornamentals (floriculture), vegetables (olericulture), and fruits (pomology) including grapes (viticulture). The origin of many of these crops is not in the tropics but in temperate zones. Their adoption to tropical climatic conditions is an objective of breeding. Many important crops, however, are indigenous to the tropics. The latter embrace perennial crops such as oil palm, vegetables including okra, field crops such as rice and sugarcane, and particularly fruits including pineapple, banana, papaya, and mango. Since the tropics represent 36% of the Earth's surface and 20% of its land surface, the potential of tropical horticulture is tremendous. In contrast to temperate regions, environmental conditions in the tropics are defined less by seasonal temperature fluctuations and more by seasonality of precipitation. Thus the climate in the greater part of the tropics is characterized by distinct wet and dry seasons, although such variation is less in locations close to the equator (±5° latitude). Temperature conditions within the tropics are affected by altitude, in which contrasting warmer and colder climate areas in the tropics can be differentiated,〔 ISBN 3540611614〕 and highland areas in the tropics can consequently be more favourable for production of temperate plant species than lowland areas are. ==Types of plants== :''For a list of tropical horticulture and agricultural crops , see Tropical agriculture Common tropical horticulture crops'' :''For an extensive list of tropical fruits, see List of fruits Tropical fruits'' Both vascular and non-vascular plants grow in tropical environments. Plants indigenous to the tropics are usually cold sensitive and adapted to receiving high levels of solar radiation. They are sensitive to small variations in photoperiod ("short day" plants), and can be adapted to extended drought, high precipitation and/or distinct wet and dry seasons. High night temperatures are a major hindrance to adopting temperate crops (e.g., tomatoes) to the tropical lowlands. Furthermore, such conditions promote high respiration rates of plants, resulting in comparably lower net photosynthesis rates. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tropical horticulture」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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