Miconia calvescens, a tree with leaves the size of a small child, evolved in heavily canopied forests in South America. When any tree falls and creates a light gap in these dense forest canopies, Miconia calvescens races to fill the gap. Pacific Island forests, by contrast, have airy, discontinuous canopies. When Miconia arrives in a Pacific Island forest, it has no canopy-forest competitors and fills all the light gaps, creating canopies as continuous as awnings, under which few animals or other plants can live. "It's like a biological desert under there--completely silent," one botanist laments.
Adapted from Susan McGrath, "Aftack of the Allen Invaders." ©2008 by National Geographic Society.

The passage suggests which of the following about Miconia?
a. It can destroy a natural habitat.
b. It adapts equally well to forests and deserts.
c. It thrives primarily on tropical islands.
d. It provides protection for some plant species.