An evergreen forest is a forest made up of evergreen trees. They occur across a wide range of climatic zones, and include trees such as conifers and holly in cold climates, eucalyptus, live oak, acacias, magnolia, and banksia in more temperate zones, and rainforest trees in tropical zones.
Species of trees
Coniferous temperate evergreen forests are most frequently dominated by species in the families. The trees include: Pinaceae and
Cupressaceae. Broadleaf temperate evergreen forests include those in which Fagaceae, such as oaks and ferns are common, those in which
Nothofagus predominate, and the
eucalyptus forests of the Southern Hemisphere. There also are assorted temperate evergreen forests dominated by other families of trees, such as
Lauraceae in
laurel forest.
Regions
Coniferous
Temperate forest evergreen forests are found largely in the temperate
Middle latitudes of
Siberia, Canada, Australia, Africa, Scandinavia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Amazon basin and
Orinoco Basin of South America, the
Himalayas and
Western Ghats of India and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Broadleaf evergreen forests occur in particular in southern China, southeastern Brazil, parts of southeastern North America,
and in countries around the Mediterranean Basin, such as
Lebanon and
Morocco. Other evergreen forests (or
tropical rainforests) are usually found in areas receiving more than of rainfall and having a monthly mean temperature of or higher in the coldest months. They occupy about seven percent of the Earth's surface and harbour more than half of the planet's terrestrial plants and animals. Tropical evergreen forests are dense, multi-layered, and harbour many types of plants and animals. These forests are found in the areas receiving heavy rainfall (more than of annual rainfall). They are very dense. Even the sunlight does not reach the ground. Numerous species of trees are found in these forests. In some regions, some types of trees shed their leaves at different times of the year. Therefore, these forests always appear green and are known as evergreen forests.
See also
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