What is the difference between deciduous trees and coniferous trees?

Deciduous plants play a very important role. They can purify the air, protect us from the wind, play the role of a hedge, and also beautifully and effectively decorate any area. Many species look spectacular in the spring during flowering, and in the summer they delight you with their fruits. All trees can be divided into deciduous and coniferous. They are all beautiful and unusual in their own way. If you want to add beautiful plants to your garden, then you can buy deciduous trees on the website greensad.ua/category/listvjannye-derevja/.

What types of deciduous grasses are there?

Many of them are used in cooking or have medicinal properties.

Hellebore Hellebore is a perennial herbaceous plant from the Ranunculaceae family. ...
Reed Reed is a perennial herbaceous plant from the Poaceae family. ...
Melissa...
Water lily...
Calendula...
Cinquefoil...
Hogweed

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Man and forest

The impact of human activities on forests around the world is enormous. Forests are an important part of the economy of many countries - producers of wood, paper, building materials and furniture. Human intervention in forest ecosystems threatens their destruction. Particularly serious problems arise when plantations of other fast-growing trees are planted in place of cleared forests: they disturb the habitat, displace its inhabitants and dramatically change the landscape. Plantations are important sources of timber, but they can cause damage to forest ecosystems. Very little has survived from the vast deciduous forests of antiquity to the present day. This is explained by the spread of agriculture and the rapid growth of cities. Destructive human activities such as acid rain threaten the last remnants of forests. We must remember this danger and take all measures to protect forests.

Which is better - fir or spruce

Depending on the purpose of these trees, each of them has its own advantages over others. To understand the difference between these plants, it is necessary to compare their characteristics.

The main advantages that spruce can boast of:
its wood is more durable, so it is very valuable for construction and furniture production;
does not require additional fertilizer;
grows faster.

Video: how to distinguish fir from spruce

The main advantages of fir wood:
normal attitude towards soil drying out;
takes root well;
has a more impressive appearance when used in landscape design;
does not require crown formation;
its cones look very attractive;
due to the absence of resin passages inside the wood, it is used for the production of paper and various containers;
has a very rich smell;
doesn't prick.

Read how to grow spruce at home, as well as how to plant fir.

Thus, you can say for sure which tree is better only after deciding for what purpose you want to use it. Depending on the situation, their specific characteristics can be both advantages and disadvantages.

Living conditions

Scots and Siberian pine, Norway spruce are the most common species found in Russian lands. Both species grow everywhere, adapting to environmental conditions.

The main difference is in relation to the illumination of the growing area. Pine is very photophilous, it is so drawn to the light that it is able to live at high altitudes above sea level, where there are no competitors, on soil poor in useful compounds. If the branches are in the dark, they gradually die, and the trunk in this place is covered with bark. Spruce tolerates large shades, so its branches are located even near the ground, in the shady area. Spruce forests love soils rich in nutrition and moisture.

Pine trees reach for the light.

Due to the different relationship to sunlight, the vegetation under the canopy of a spruce forest differs from that of a pine forest. This also applies to mushrooms and berries, mosses and lichens.

Coniferous forests

Coniferous trees get their name from the needles, the green needles that cover their branches. In cold and harsh climate zones where summers are short and there is little precipitation, for example in North America, northern Europe and Asia, there are huge spruce, cedar, pine, fir and larch forests. To the south, coniferous trees grow mixed with deciduous trees in the so-called mixed forests. Coniferous trees are covered with needles instead of leaves. The surface of the needles is smaller than the leaves, and it evaporates less moisture. Almost all conifers are evergreen and, thanks to their needles, can produce food all year round. Coniferous trees cannot serve as a source of food for animals: their needles are very hard, and there are usually few branches on the trunk. Only a few plant species can grow on the ground in coniferous forests. This is due to the lack of sunlight. Therefore, the fauna in such forests is poor. It's too cold there for most bacteria and earthworms to live and grow. The soil remains unloosened, and very little humus is formed, and this is the reason for the low efficiency of nitrogen cycles of mineral substances. Some animals have adapted to permanent life in the forest (see also the article “Adaptation of animals and plants to living conditions in deserts”). Thus, moose wander in the bowl in search of food, and bears and chipmunks hibernate for the winter and live off the fat reserves accumulated in summer and autumn. Warm short summer awakens all living things to activity. The insects reproduce quickly and serve as food for birds returning north to breed. Coniferous trees grow quickly under abundant sunlight.

Cypress - description, photo, care

Representatives of the genus Cypress can be either shrubs or tall trees with a pyramidal or spreading crown.

In any case, these are monoecious crops - there are both female and male flower cones on one plant. Round, fairly large cones are formed in the second year of the plant’s life and have multifaceted shields of scales. The somewhat flattened seed is equipped with one narrow wing.

The leaves of young cypress trees are needle-shaped, and with age they become flattened, scale-like, attached to the branches so that only the tip of each leaf remains free. The needles on the branches are located in different planes.

On the reverse side of the leaves there are oily glands - they are “responsible” for the specific coniferous “essential” smell of the plant. The needles and shoots of some types of cypress are used to obtain aroma oils that have healing properties.

Cypress wood is resinous and very light, and it also has a fungicidal effect.

According to some assumptions, cypress is the gopher tree from which Noah's Ark was made.

There are about 20 species in the Cypress genus; evergreen cypress is most often used in gardens and parks as ornamental plants and as hedges. It can reach half a meter in diameter and 30 m in height and grows quite quickly. The plant can tolerate prolonged drought and short-term temperature drops down to –20°C. Its needles are small, soft, elongated in “diamond shapes,” and the cones are round and small, layered with an intricate pattern of scales.

If you have a shady area with constantly moist soils, you can plant swamp cypress with a crown in the shape of a regular cone. In autumn, its light green soft needles turn bronze-burgundy and fall off, like those of larch. A unique feature of the swamp cypress is the pneumatophores, or breathing roots, which protrude vertically above the ground surface.

And the small size of some varieties of large-fruited cypress allows it to be grown as a houseplant and even a bonsai, although in natural conditions it is a tall tree. The culture is photophilous, prefers ventilated rooms with moderate temperatures and high air humidity, moderate watering.

TOP 5 best coniferous plants for the home
Tired of “grandmother’s” flowers and palm trees in your apartment? Or want to give an unusual gift to an avid gardener? Conifers are what you need!

Spreading

It is found on the border of forest and tundra, growing in forest and forest-steppe zones. It can be found along the banks of reservoirs, in forests, along forest edges, occasionally on dry sands and clearings, in ravines, swamps and in the mountains; rises to the upper border of the forest.

It grows well on various soils, forms pure aspen forests and is part of mixed forests along with coniferous (pine, larch, spruce) and deciduous (birch, alder, oak). In the steppes, colonies are formed from them - aspen stakes, growing from separate seedlings and reproducing through shoots of the root system; new stems in the colony can appear at a distance of up to 30-40 meters from the parent tree. Some colonies become very large over time, spreading at a rate of about a meter per year, eventually covering several hectares. They are able to survive forest fires because the root system is located deep underground.

Distributed throughout Russia.

Outside Russia, it is distributed in Kazakhstan, Crimea, Europe, China, Mongolia, and the Korean Peninsula.

Coniferous trees and their needles

By looking at the shape of the needles, you can easily determine what type of tree they belong to. Here are the main conifer species:

1. Larch . Bunches of 12-20 short needles. They fall in the autumn.

2. Fir . Single needles with blunt tips.

3. Cedar and juniper . Small flat scaly leaves.

4. Pine . Two or three needles connected at the base.

5. Spruce . Sharp, hard tetrahedral needles.

6. Tise . Flat leathery needles.

Main Differences

Evergreen coniferous trees are very similar in appearance, but they have quite a lot of differences. First of all, you should take into account that they grow in different natural zones.

Spruce is a more frost-resistant type of coniferous tree, more common in the northern hemisphere, often growing as a dense forest or as part of a mixed forest. It can grow up to 40 meters up and reaches no more than 2 meters in width, which is why most often they are easily blown away by strong gusts of wind.

Fir, on the other hand, is not so frost-resistant, so it grows mainly in the Caucasus, in the southern part of Siberia, and is also common in the Primorsky Territory. It grows up to 60 meters in height, the first decade of growth is minimal - about 10 cm per year. At the same time, it is very sensitive to climate and the amount of moisture in the soil. The crown is shaped like a pyramid, the trunk is straight and smooth.

Thuja - description, photo, care

Thuja is another favorite of summer residents, perfect for creating hedges or interesting landscape compositions with many other plants (the only thing is that she doesn’t really like it when spruce, pine or fir are nearby). They love this crop for its decorativeness, ease of care, rapid growth, resistance to drought, frost and air smoke, and ease of crown formation.

In young thuja plants, the leaves are soft, needle-shaped, in adults they are scale-like, crosswise opposite, also with oil glands. Unlike cypress, thuja needles are located in one plane, and they also smell sweet - healing aroma oil is also obtained from it, although its use is indicated for completely different ailments than cypress.

Like cypress, thuja is a monoecious plant. But its cones are much smaller than cypress cones (7-10 mm), always have an elongated oblong shape and several pairs of scales, which are arranged crosswise. The seeds are flat, with two narrow wings.

The species Thuja orientalis, widely used in ornamental gardening, also known as Biota orientalis, is now not considered as part of the Thuja genus. Its correct name, according to modern views, is the eastern flatweed. Its main feature is the absence of resin glands in the needles, unlike all types of thuja.

Thanks to the huge variety of garden forms and varieties of thuja, every summer resident can choose a plant that is suitable specifically for his site - dwarf or tall, spreading or compact, with a pyramidal or spherical crown, green, yellow-orange, bronze or light green needles.

Most often in our gardens you can find varieties of thuja occidentalis, although Japanese with a wide-pyramidal crown, folded with drooping flat shoots and colored foliage, and Korean with a white-silver “underside” of needles are also used as an ornamental plant.

Thuja - growing features
How to properly care for thuja?

Growing conifers in the country and caring for them

There are two ways to plant your favorite specimens: seeds and seedlings. For beginners, the second option is preferable, since growing from seeds is a painstaking and lengthy process. Plants should be planted in the autumn before the onset of cold weather. The soil is pre-fertilized.

Buying seedlings is an important stage in creating an original garden.

When choosing seedlings, you should pay attention to the following parameters:

trunk height and condition. Too tall specimens with a weak trunk are a poor choice for rooting;
state of the root system. There should be no mold, dirt, or dry areas on the roots.
capacity. It is better to choose trees in a high-quality container in which the plants are well rooted.
the size of the earthen clod. A small lump is not a sign of weak roots, but the result of “schooling”. This procedure is necessary to be able to plant adult plants.

Coniferous diversity in a summer cottage

The choice of landing site plays an important role. Coniferous plants do not like the proximity of groundwater, they grow strongly, and therefore require more space. Caring for plants usually comes down to annual feeding and timely watering (at first three times a week, then twice a week). Fallen pine needles are also put to good use - they are used for mulching before the onset of winter cold. To create and preserve the original shapes of hedges and topiary, it is necessary to prune plants, especially dwarf ones. This does not always require specific skills - minimal knowledge of how the plant should look is sufficient.

Coniferous plants have a number of advantages:

tolerance to lack of light;
a developed root system that allows the plant to remain without watering for a long time;
beneficial effects on the human condition;
versatility. The variety of species allows you to select ephedra for any area of the floor.

Therefore, such plants are widely used for landscape design.

Watering

Despite the resistance of spruce to unfavorable environmental conditions, it must be watered in the summer. At first, when the plant is just planted, it requires a lot of water. But you can’t add too much liquid either. Clay soil is either mixed with sand or thoroughly drained to prevent stagnation of water.

Plants need to be watered every day. It is advisable to do this in the morning, while the sun is still low. Mature plants tolerate heat well, even for quite a long time. But if it drags on or there is no precipitation at all, then the plants must be helped.

Trimming

The height of the plant is limited to your taste. To do this you need to work with the top. The shoots located on top are twisted out as soon as they appear. Then the nutrients will be evenly distributed throughout the remaining part of the crown. This will prevent needles from dropping from the lower branches.

It is necessary to clearly understand the difference between trimming and pinching. The second option is suitable mainly for nursery employees who can concentrate entirely on working with trees. In the household, a less labor-intensive pruning procedure will be preferable. In addition, plants grow much slower after pinching. Moreover, in some cases, pinching successfully replaces sanitary pruning of young Christmas trees.

It is recommended to trim spruce trees using pruning shears or garden saws. You need to remove the entire shoot or the deformed part of the trunk. Sanitary haircuts are carried out systematically depending on how much the crown grows.

Pruning in the fall is also possible, but you will have to carefully calculate the timing so that the cuts heal before the arrival of frost. The reliability of such calculations, especially in today's unstable climate, is highly questionable. In any case, the next sanitary haircut should be carried out in the spring, before the buds begin to grow. Formative pruning is carried out only for trees at least 3 years old, when their height reaches 0.5-1 m. Pruning the apical branches, which stimulates sideways growth, helps turn a cone-like plant into a kind of ball.

Young Christmas trees are often treated with pruning shears. For mature plants, they try to use a brush cutter. It is advisable to perform a shaping haircut on cloudy days when there is no intense heat. Otherwise, the needles will acquire an unpleasant brownish color. It is advisable to pre-sprinkle to make work easier and keep the tool sharp longer.

During the growing season, it is allowed to remove no more than 30% of the growth. Then the formation of a lush, dense crown will be as easy as possible. It is strictly forbidden to leave the branches bare, because then their growth will be impossible. You also need to take care of your own safety. All parts of the body when working, especially the eyes and hands, must be carefully covered.

Additional requirements are:

trim spruce only with a sharp, dirt-free tool;
after finishing work, wash its blades and wipe them dry;
avoid cutting during resin release;
do not strive to create a very complex geometric shape (this is the prerogative of professionals), because the simplest options can be no less attractive.

Legends associated with aspen

Aspen leaves still tremble with horror, remembering the Crucifixion

. It was believed that the Cross of the Lord was made of aspen, and “since then the branches of this tree have been gripped by fear and trembled incessantly.” However, aspen does not actually grow in Palestine. The trembling of aspen leaves in the Russian tradition is associated with another episode of the New Testament - the suicide of Judas Iscariot [1]. People consider aspen a cursed tree because, according to legend, Judas the Traitor hanged himself on it. In fact, a rather wide aspen leaf naturally has a very thin and flexible stalk, unable to hold it straight; This is why aspen foliage is extremely sensitive to even the lightest breeze. There is an assumption that this is due to the fact that aspen, due to its rapid growth, does not have time to build up a sufficiently large thickness and strength of the main trunk, while the total leaf area reaches a fairly large size. Therefore, in a strong wind, a plant with leaves tightly pressed to the stems would constantly lose them (aspen leaves are held on long, rather loose petioles); and a rigid trunk would break (the aspen trunk is extremely flexible).

The difference between aspen and poplar

It is not difficult to find signs of how poplar differs from aspen. There are several reliable signs:

Branches from both trees with dormant buds broken in early spring should be placed in a glass of water. The poplar will be the first to start growing and spread its sticky leaves, while the aspen will wake up later and its leaves will not have such a pronounced shine.
The aspen blooms first, followed by the poplar. Moreover, only the poplar will give abundant fluff.
The structure of leaf petioles in the two species is different: aspen petioles are long and easily tied into a knot, while poplar petioles are short.
Aspen branches are more fragile and break easily from force, while poplar branches are more likely to bend than break.
If you compare the leaves, they have a lot in common, but there are also differences - the shape of the poplar leaf is more elongated and pointed.

Best time to plant

Spring is considered the best time to plant, from about mid-April to May. At this time, the weather is already warm, but the soil is still wet, these are just the right conditions for the root system to develop well. Sometimes pine trees are replanted in early autumn, from about the end of August until the start of cold weather.

Winter peace

If you plant a tree later, after frost, it may die. If it is really necessary to transplant into frozen ground, then holes for trees that need replanting are dug in advance, when the ground is still soft, then the holes are covered with shields, which can be further insulated on top.

Places of growth

There are a lot of coniferous tree species, some of them are very similar to each other or completely different. So what is the difference between pine and spruce, do they have features unique to only one species? Well, let's start getting acquainted with the evergreen beauties. A comparison of spruce and pine should begin with a description of their habitats. Pine is listed in the pine family and the coniferous class. Vast areas are occupied by pine plantations in the northern hemisphere. Pines love cold and humid climates. These evergreen fluffy trees are considered long-lived; their lifespan can reach 350 years. Mature pines are quite tall - up to 75 m in height. In the southwestern United States there is a pine tree that is 6,000 years old, truly a long-liver. What is the difference between pine and spruce in terms of habitat?

Spruce is also classified as a member of the pine family, the coniferous class. This evergreen plant is quite tall and has a fluffy pyramidal crown. Spruce plantations have filled Eastern Europe, Central and Northeast Asia, China, and North America. A lot of forests consist of this species. The lifespan of spruce trees is slightly shorter than that of pines. But some species live up to 300 years and grow up to 50 m in height.

Forest-tundra and coniferous forests

There is a transition between the zones of tundra and coniferous forests - forest-tundra. This is a narrow strip in which the distribution of vegetation depends most on local conditions.

On the southern border of the tundra zone, in places protected from the wind and warmed up, first shrubs or dwarf forms of trees appear, and then to the south, as summer temperatures increase and the length of the growing season increases, trees, mainly conifers, appear. In habitats unfavorable for woody vegetation, tundra communities of southern varieties are common: for example, shrubs.

Even further south, a zone of coniferous forests begins, which is often called taiga. Initially, this name belonged only to the forests of Siberia, but then it passed to coniferous forests of other regions of the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere. The southern border of the taiga in Eurasia ranges from 60-61°C. w. on the Scandinavian Peninsula to the mouth of the river. Narva, then r. Oka, further south of the sources of the river. Kama, through the Ural Mountains; in Western Siberia it is located approximately at the 54th parallel and then passes through the south of Central Siberia to the Pacific coast, along the south of Sikhote-Alin and about. Hokkaido. In North America it stretches from about. Vancouver through the Cordillera to the source of the river. Mackenzie, Lake Winnipeg, north of the Great Lakes, to the mouth of the river. St. Lawrence. The conditions for the existence of the organic world in this zone are varied, and the biocenoses are also different.

Within the territory of the zone, the average temperatures of the warmest month are 10-19 ° C, the coldest month can be both relatively high, even positive (up to 3 ° C), and very low (up to -40 ° C). The growing season is quite short, and with temperatures above 10°C it lasts from a month to four. Snow cover persists throughout the winter. Precipitation exceeds evaporation, so there is excess moisture. Permafrost is quite widespread in the zone, which contributes to waterlogging of the upper layers of the soil. With excessive moisture, plants are in conditions of physiological dryness due to low temperatures and the acidic reaction of soil waters.

Vegetation and soils

Forest-forming tree species have some common properties: they have needles, which, as a rule, do not fall off in the winter; most of them have a superficial root system. However, with different relief structures and on different soils, the conditions for soil formation and plant habitat are not the same. Hence the huge diversity of forest communities within the zone.

In the European taiga, spruce and pine forests predominate on glacial and water-glacial deposits. Spruce forests of various types, predominantly with Norway spruce in the upper layer, grow mainly on clay and loamy soils under normal moisture conditions. These forests are dark, their canopy is inhabited by shade-tolerant plants with a predominance of vegetative propagation, many evergreen or wintergreen species, and no ephemerals. In the undergrowth, juniper, willows, currants, and rowan are common; in the grass cover - wood sorrel, wintergreen, bileaf, sagewort, ferns, shrubs: blueberries, lingonberries. There are a lot of green mosses, and sphagnum dominates in the wetlands. Pine trees grow on sandy soils. Pines can even grow on rocks, anchoring themselves in rock cracks, and in wetlands. Scots pine with its powerful root system can live where other species die, the same spruce, which has a superficial root system. But pine seedlings do not tolerate shading, so they are easily crowded out by other trees. In light-coniferous pine forests, moss-lichen cover predominates and shrubs, xerophytes (for example, cat's paw, juveniles) and psammophytes - sandy tsmin, etc. are common. On swampy soils, the tree cover is depressed, but still survives. In the European taiga there is an admixture of small-leaved trees, and in places where fellings and fires occur, secondary alder, birch, and aspen forests grow.

In Western Siberia, dark spruce-fir forests predominate on poorly drained lowland plains. Siberian spruce and fir dominate here, with a fairly large admixture of cedar pine. Central Siberia is almost completely occupied by cold-resistant light larch forests, which lose their soft needles in the winter. Larches grow better than other species in permafrost and sharply continental climates. Two types of larch predominate: Siberian and Daurian. In the Far East, mainly mountain taiga is widespread, dominated by Ayan spruce and whitebark fir. There are even more thickets of dwarf cedar, a creeping form of a special species from the pine family. They cover the slopes of mountains and hills with a continuous carpet.

In North America, the taiga zone also stretches from ocean to ocean. Its northern border reaches the 48th parallel in the east of the continent, and the southern border descends significantly further south than anywhere else in Eurasia. The species composition of the American taiga is much more diverse than the Eurasian taiga.

To those genera that are common in Eurasia are added the more heat-loving hemlocks, pseudo-hemlocks, thujas, and sequoias. Some of them are found in East Asia and the Himalayas, which indicates their former floristic connection with North American regions. Spruces, pines, firs, and larches are represented, as a rule, by their own special species. There are many small-leaved trees in this taiga, also belonging to endemic species.

The cordillera serves as a significant barrier to the spread of plants and animals. Although the zone of coniferous forests in the mountains is not interrupted and represents a mountain taiga with conditions characteristic of the entire zone, the forests of the Pacific coast differ sharply from the eastern, so-called Canadian taiga. This is affected both by the disunity of regions in the last stages of the development of the organic world after the formation of the mountain barrier, and by differences in the modern conditions of life.

The Canadian taiga is very similar to the northern forests of Eurasia.

The dominant species here are Canadian (white) and black spruce, and American larch, which is close to Daurian larch. Among the small-leaved species, paper birch and American aspen are common. As you can see, the forest-forming tree species are the same as in Eurasia, but are represented by endemic species. Typical American trees include balsam fir, Canadian hemlock (eastern hemlock), and oriental thuja. On sandy soils, Banks pine predominates in pine forests. The shrub layer and grass cover are very similar to the forests of Eurasia.

Pacific coniferous forests are confined to the western foothills of the Cordillera and are common in the lower tier of the mountains. They are very different from the Canadian and Eurasian taiga. In the northern part, these forests have some similarities with the forest vegetation of East Asia.

Larch forests dominate here, with Alaskan larch close to Daurian larch. To the south, in a very humid climate with mild winters and cool summers, unique “rain” forests are common, original both in structure and species composition. Despite the abundant moisture, there is almost no stagnation of water here, since the relief is dissected. The forests are dominated by large conifers: Sitka spruce, Douglas fir (Douglas fir, or pseudo-hemlock), western hemlock (hemlock), giant thuja (folded, red cedar). They are often joined by balsam fir, red spruce, yellow and Murray pines and some broad-leaved species: maple, linden, elm. Forests are multi-tiered, usually polydominant, with dense shrub and grass cover. Fallen tree trunks and branches often form a kind of flooring two to three meters above the ground. Mosses and lichens hang from the trees, and in appearance these forests sometimes resemble tropical rainforests, especially their mountain variant. The trees of the upper tier are long-lived and can reach gigantic sizes: the height of the Douglas fir tree is up to 75 m (individual specimens are up to 100 m), the folded thuja is up to 60 m, the diameter of the hemlock trunk is up to 6 m. The entire upper tier, as a rule, has height 50-70 m. The second tier includes shorter coniferous and deciduous species. To the south these forests reach 40-50° N. w. According to the thermal regime, broad-leaved species should already be growing here, but under conditions of high precipitation, conifers dominate in the upper layer, and broad-leaved species occupy the lower layers. The already listed species are joined by white fir, sugar pine, incense cedar, and in the very south - evergreen sequoia. In the Sierra Nevada mountains, at an altitude of 1500 m, there are groves of giant sequoiadendron (mammoth tree, Wellingtonia), which, like sequoia, belongs to the ancient family Taxodiaceae. These trees live up to 1500 (and maybe more) years and reach a height of up to 100 m and a trunk diameter of up to 15-18 m. Groves of mammoth trees are now carefully protected, each tree is registered and under observation.

The flora of American coniferous forests has a high degree of endemicity. They are unique to 50 species of spruce, 30 out of 40 - fir, 80 out of 100 - pine. The forests of the west coast are richest in endemic and relict species.

Podzols are most often formed under the coniferous forests of both continents.

They are distinguished by the presence of a white leaching horizon from the surface or at a very shallow depth, consisting of finely dispersed silica. The washout horizon is dense, tiled, red-brown in color, enriched with iron oxides. Such soils are formed on coarse clastic weathering crusts of crystalline rocks, on moraine loams, fluvioglacial sands with a sparse grass cover under coniferous litter. When pine litter decomposes, acids are formed, and the reaction of the soil solution in podzolic soils is acidic. Mobile fulvic acids contribute to the leaching of substances from the upper horizons to the lower ones, where they become immobile. Humus does not accumulate. Only in the presence of leaf litter of the lower tiers and undergrowth, and the development of grass cover in some types of coniferous forests, sod-podzolic soils with a more or less thick humus horizon are formed. Under the forests of the Pacific coast, thanks to the leaf litter of the lower tiers, brown forest soils with a dark-colored, relatively thick humus horizon can form.

Significant areas within the coniferous forest zone are occupied by wetlands and swamps. All types are common here. The development of sphagnum bogs is especially characteristic of the dark coniferous taiga. Sphagnum mosses settle in the ground cover. They form dense clusters. Mosses have hygroscopic properties, accumulate moisture, and in places where they grow, raised bogs with peat bogs are formed.

Animal world

The fauna of coniferous forests is quite homogeneous throughout the zone. Most animals have thick fur because they need protection from the cold in winter. They are classified as fur-bearing animals. Many store food or hibernate for the winter. Rodents and birds also feed on the seeds of coniferous trees. Their numbers depend on the harvest of these seeds, because in winter and early spring this is practically the only type of food. These include squirrels, chipmunks, forest voles and mice, hares, and birds - nutcrackers, bee-eaters, and crossbills. Fluctuations in their number entail a change in the number of predators feeding on them: martens, sables, lynxes. The taiga is home to large ungulates - elk; in the summer deer come here from the more southern zones, and in the winter - from the northern zones. There are predators: wolves, foxes, lynxes, wolverines, minks, bears. Beavers live in ponds. All these animals are found in the coniferous forests of both continents, but are represented by different species, subspecies or varieties, which usually differ little from each other in lifestyle and appearance. There are endemics on every continent. The forests of North America are richest in them, especially the Pacific ones. The skunk is endemic in the badger subfamily, and the muskrat or musk rat is endemic among rodents. The arboreal porcupine, the quilled porcupine, lives in the subtropics in Eurasia, and in the taiga in North America. In the reserves of North America, wood bison have been preserved, and in Eurasia, bison have been preserved under artificial conditions with difficulty from complete extinction by repeated crossing of single surviving specimens with the American bison and further selection for traits inherited from bison.

The biological productivity of coniferous forests is higher than that of tundras and forest-tundras, but it varies significantly within the zone. The most productive biocenoses are located in the southern part of the Pacific forests of North America. According to this indicator, they are not inferior to broad-leaved forests. Both the Far Eastern and Western European taiga on the southern outskirts of the zone are productive - up to 100 c/ha. But in most of the territory of coniferous forests, biological productivity ranges from 40 to 80 c/ha.

The coniferous forests of both continents have been significantly modified by humans. They have long been cut down and suffered from fires. Both for natural reasons and due to the fault of people, hundreds and thousands of hectares of forests burn out every year. This is facilitated by dry summer weather, which often lasts for a long time in a continental climate. The restoration of taiga biocenoses is proceeding slowly. First, birch, aspen, and alder forests grow in clearings and burnt areas. Under their canopy, the spruce forest is regenerating quite well, although slowly, and light-loving pine has to be grown artificially, caring for the plantings. The culture of forestry, including reforestation, is high in Canada, Sweden, and Finland. Within our country, forestry is not conducted entirely rationally. Often, branches and unusable trunks remain in cleared areas, which complicates reforestation and protection from forest fires. The reduction in the area of coniferous forests leads to the disappearance of many useful plants and animals and causes irreparable damage to the entire natural complex of these territories. However, new forests created by man are also appearing. Forestry has different purposes, the main one being the production of wood. Sometimes pine forests are planted to stabilize sands. This is why large areas of pine forests arose in the Landes on the Biscay coast of France, where it was necessary to stop the shifting sands of the dunes. The magnificent pine forests on the dunes of the Curonian Spit and the coast of the Gulf of Riga are of the same origin.

Types of trees

Deciduous trees have flat leaves that fall off in the fall. These trees bloom and can bear fruit. Coniferous trees have hard, needle-shaped leaves called needles. They grow cones or juniper berries. Based on the lifespan of leaves, evergreen and deciduous trees are distinguished.

Deciduous trees lose their leaves in the fall, have no leaves on the trees in the winter, and new leaves emerge from the buds in the spring. Evergreen trees do not have a specific time for changing leaves. Old leaves are replaced by new ones gradually throughout the life of the tree.

Redwoods

The tallest and oldest tree on the planet, the sequoia, grows wild only in California (USA). The branches of the conical crown are located strictly horizontally, only occasionally bending slightly downwards, the average life expectancy is about one and a half thousand years.

The tree is not grown in open ground at our latitudes; it needs a lot of moisture in the ground and air. Indoor bonsai-style options are more popular. They require a lot of patience and care, but the exquisite beauty of the composition makes up for all the difficulties.