The Madagascar Exhibit

The Madagascar Spiny Forest is located on the southwestern tip of the island of Madagascar. A karst area, it is underlane with massive caves and underground passages. These caves quickly suck off the meager 7-10 inches of rain the areas receives in its short rainy season. The plants have adapted to deal with water hungry underground and the short rainy season. The large bases of many of the plants, such as the Pachypodium grandidieri palms and the Moringa drouhardii, store nutrition and water so that when the short rains do come the plant can spread a water-catching net of roots out rapidly, thus efficiently gathering water. The spines on such plants as Alluaudia procera and Pachypodium geayi are not so much for protection as they are for water collection. The spines have an ability to condense water from the frequent fogs that the spiny forest experiences.