Evergreen forest

An evergreen forest: composed of Pine trees.

A temperate evergreen forest is a forest consisting entirely or mainly of evergreen trees that retain green foliage all year round. Such forests reign the tropics primarily as broadleaf evergreens, and in temperate and boreal latitudes primarily as coniferous evergreens.

Tropical evergreen forests

Further information: Tropical and subtropical coniferous forests

Tropical evergreen forests are usually found in areas receiving more than 200 cm of rainfall and having a temperature of 15 °C to 30 °C. They occupy about seven per cent of the Earth's land surface and harbour more than half of the world’s plants and animals. Found mostly near the equator, these tropical forests are dense, multi-layered and harbour many types of plants and animals. The trees are evergreen as there is no period of drought or frost. They are mostly tall hardwood trees with broad leaves that release excess water through transpiration.

In India, evergreen forests are found on the western slopes of the Western Ghats in States such as Maharashtra, Kerala and Karnataka. And also found in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, West Bengal and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. They are also found in the hills of Jaintia and Khasi. Some of the trees found in Indian Tropical Forests are rosewood, mahogany and ebony. Bamboo and reeds are also common.

Temperate evergreen forests

Further information: Temperate coniferous forest

Temperate evergreen forests are found mainly in regions like Montane North America, Asian-Russia, Canada and Northern Scandinavia, and Broadleaf evergreen forests are found in countries around the Mediterranean Sea like Lebanon and Morocco and eastern North America. Evergreen forests around the world are under threat of logging, mining, oil and gas developments, pollution, hydroelectric projects and other human developments planned in these areas.

The temperate evergreen forests are located in the mid-latitudinal coastal region. They are commonly found along the eastern margin of the continents, e.g., in southeastern United States, southern China and in southeastern Brazil. They comprise with both broad leaf and coniferous trees, such as oak, pine and eucalyptus.

Temperate evergreen forest encompasses the wet temperate and subtropical conifer forests of the northwestern North America, as well as subtropical evergreen broadleaf forests (e.g., in China) and the nothofagus and eucalyptus forests of the Southern Hemisphere. Temperate evergreen forests are characterized by their hardy trees. Trees need to withstand sandy, rocky, and basically poor quality soil, occasional fires, droughts and cold weather. These forests are generally dominated by pines, but also support fir, hemlock, oak, and giant sequoia.

See also

• Deciduous forest
• Biomes
• Ecoregion
• Ecological land classification
• List of terrestrial ecoregions (WWF)