| Plants in the
Temperate deciduous forests adjust their growth and activity to the seasons of
the year. In spring, lilies, spring beauties and other low-growing wildflowers
emerge. Once the tree leaves are out and shade the forest floor, many of these
plants' leaves wither and die, leaving the plants' roots or bulbs alive
underground, ready to grow next year. In summer large-leafed plants adapted to
low light conditions, because of the shade from the trees' leaves, grow. In
fall, plants undergo a process called hardening, which prepares them for the
winter. Below are pictures and interesting facts about the plantlife found in
the TDF. |
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Oak
Trees - the oak trees in Sherwood Forest in Great Britain are 500 years
old! Oaks can grow to a height of 120 feet! Acorns are
the fruits of the oak tree. Oak trees produce lots of acorns every 3-4 years.
Squirrels like eating them and they bury some. Seedlings grow from the buried
acorns the following spring. |
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Eglantine - a very hardy shrub that can get quite big, possibly up to
10 feet tall. It blooms just once, with single pink flowers about 1.5 to 2
inches across. The foliage emits a nice apple fragrance, especially when
rubbed. In the fall, Eglantine puts on a nice show with lots of bright red
leaves. |
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Birch Trees - can grow to a height of 40 feet. The bark of the
tree peels as it ages. Birches are typical "pioneer" trees, able to invade and
colonise bare land successfully. Birch trees are wind pollinated |
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Flowering Dogwood - the dogwood flowers in early spring. It
can grow to a height of 20-30 feet. It's leaves are typically 6-12 inches in
diameter and turn brilliant red, orange and scarlet in the fall of the year. It
bears clusters of red fruit in the winter. |
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Red Maple Tree - this tree grows everywhere from the organic
muck of shallow fresh water swamps to the rocky quartzite slopes of the
Appalachian Mountains. This tree's small, numerous red flowers bloom in the
early spring, before the leaves come out. The leaves are 3 or 5 lobed, red
stemmed, and vary from 2 to 5 inches long. |
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Eastern Hemlock - hemlocks in the northeast are being attacked
by the Wolly adelgid, an Asian sap-sucking insect that is usually fatal to the
trees, especially those individuals that are growing in shady onditions. The
hemlock is a conifer with short needles, usually less than an inch long, that
grow in two rows on each side of the branch. |
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Tulip Tree - the Tulip tree is the tallest hardwood in the
eastern forests of North America. Often between 100 and 200 feet in height at
maturity, this tree grows rapidly, sometimes over 6 feet a year! It is actually
in the magnolia family, and it bears large, bee-pollinated tulip-like 6 petal
yellow, green, and orange flowers in the late spring. Tuliptree leaves are 4-6
inches long, about as wide, 4 lobed, and bilaterally symmetric. They are the
only 4 lobed symmetric leaves in the eastern forests. |
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Witch Hazel - Witch hazel is a tree with branches that are
very flexible -- so springy, in fact, that American Indians used them to make
bows! Despite its name, witch hazel has nothing to do with witchcraft. In
medieval English, witch was spelled wych, and it meant
flexible. |
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Beech
Trees - the beech casts some of the darkest shade in the forest, and very
few other trees grow under it. The beech tree is most easily identified by its
bark. The bark is light colored, and very smooth, as this tree never develops
furrows. The leaves are fairly small, toothed, with veins terminating in teeth.
There are no lobes on the leaves, which turn yellow in the fall. The nuts,
which fall before the leaves turn, are small, triangular shaped, and
edible! |
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Sugar Maple Trees - in the fall, the sugar maple becomes the
most colorful tree in the forest. The fall foliage is usually orange or red,
and the whole tree generally turns at once. This is the tree whose sap is used
to produce maple syrup. |
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