Cut off from the African mainland for millions of years, Madagascar's teeming forests are a naturalist's dream. They've preserved oddities and developed specialisations found nowhere else on earth, and you can get among them in a spectacular collection of accessible national parks. Sheltering more than 10,000 varieties of plants (with more discovered daily), the island is truly blanketed with one of the richest collections of flora in the world, including a thousand different species of orchids, amongst them the stunning black orchid and the rarest of all orchids: the white-flowered Angraecum Sesquipedale. You'll also find the provident plant, a water-storing bottle tree, six different species of baobabtrees, the carnivorous pitcher plant, and more. One reason for this diversity is the range of microclimates. In fact, each climatic region in Madagascar is associated with a specific vegetation type with a distinct set of plants and animals. The density of endemic plants is such that some individual mountain tops have 150-200 endemic plants found nowhere else on earth.

Madagascar is divided into roughly four major habitat types separated by a mountainchain running down the length of the island. Rainforest containing valuable hardwoods covers the eastern slopes of the mountains, at one time all the way to the eastern seaboard; savanna woodlands and grasslands predominate around remnant patches of what was once an enormous dry deciduous forest can be found along the west side of the island. Grasslands, typical of the high plateau, now dominate the island's scenery; and spiny desert is found at the southern end of the island.

Plants

 Half of 486 families of plants distinguished by botanists grow here and here alone. So far some six to eight thousand species have been identified, but the specialists estimate that the total figure is twice than this number.

Baobab trees

Species of baobabs, Adansonia, are also widespread throughout the south and west, including majestic stands of A. grandidieri north of Morondava. Other bottle-trees include Moringa drouhardii near Ianantsony south of Tuléar.

Palmtrees

Madagascar has 175 species of palms, far more than can be found in all of Africa. The most famous plant is the fan shaped ravinala (Ravenala madagascariensis) which is one of the symbol of the country. It is called " traveler's palm " because it contains a supply of pure water in the base of the leaf stalk that traveler can drink and it is also reputed to align itself along an east-west axis, providing directions for befuddled wanderers.

Dideracee

The island also has a rich and unique succulent flora, including the endemic Didereaceae family. These resemble cacti, but are not closely related. They are dominant in the extreme southwest and across the southern part of Madagascar, where conditions are very dry.