The flora of deciduous forests. Flora and vegetation of deciduous forests

Mixed and deciduous forests, located between the steppes and taiga, occupy about 28% of the area of ​​all of Russia.

They include such trees as pine, spruce, larch, maple, oak. These forests are distinguished by a large number of fauna inhabitants: predatory, herbivorous animals, birds.

The mild climate characteristic of this territory contributes to the prosperity of various vegetation, therefore the forests are rich in berry bushes, mushrooms, and medicinal herbs.

What are mixed and deciduous forests

Mixed forests are a natural area of ​​coniferous and deciduous trees with an admixture of about 7% of other types of plants.

Deciduous (summer-green) trees with wide leaf blades are called deciduous forests.

Characteristics of mixed forests

There is a diagram of the varieties of mixed forests:

It is characteristic that the description of the forest composition includes tiers of trees and shrubs of various heights:

The location of the zone of mixed and deciduous forests

The mixed and deciduous forests of Russia have the following geographical position - they originate at the western borders and extend to the Ural Mountains.

Due to the openness of the zone to large deep rivers - Oka, Volga, Dnieper, moisture is felt in the forests. Deposits in these zones of clay and sand contribute to the development of lakes and marshlands. The location of forests near the Atlantic Ocean, which has an impact on the climate, is also important.

Climate

Mixed forests are most comfortable to grow in a mild, humid, temperate continental climate with a clear alternation of seasons (high temperatures in summer and low temperatures in winter). The southern and western parts account for about 700-800 mm of precipitation. It is this balanced climate that promotes the cultivation of various crops here: wheat, flax, sugar beets, potatoes.

In deciduous forests, the climate changes from temperate continental to temperate, winter becomes warmer and summer is cooler, but average annual precipitation increases. This atmosphere allows coniferous and broadleaf trees to grow together favorably.

Animal world

The world of forest dwellers is rich and varied. Deer, moose, hares, hedgehogs live here. The most common predators of the mixed forest are fox, wolf, marten, forest cat, lynx, brown bear.

Mixed forest animals

Rodents live in the forests: mice, squirrels, rats. And in the European part of the forest such rare inhabitants as the badger and the lynx settled.

The forest litter and soil are inhabited by invertebrates, which recycle the layer of fallen leaves. Leaf-eating insects live in the crown of trees.

Mixed forest birds

This type of forest is perfect for birds: woodpeckers, wood grouses, tits that feed on caterpillars, and owls that are not averse to feasting on mice.

Mixed forest plants

The moderate continental climate allows birch, alder, poplar, mountain ash, spruce, and pine to grow in mixed forests.

The willow feels very comfortable here because of the sufficient humidity. The pride of this type of forest is the oak, in mixed forests it grows tall, powerful and large, therefore it stands apart from other trees.

Mixed forests are largely composed of shrubs: elderberry, wild raspberry, hazel, viburnum, which also loves moisture very much.

Besides trees and shrubs, mixed forests are rich in a variety of grasses, mosses and flowers. In the mixed forest, you can see such vegetation as fern, nettle, sedge, clover, horsetail, St. John's wort and many others. Flowers will delight the eye: chamomile, lilies of the valley, buttercups, bells, lungwort.

Prevailing soils

In the forests there are a lot of fallen leaves and needles, which, decaying, form humus. In conditions of moderate humidity, mineral and organic substances accumulate in the upper soil layer.

Humus with organic matter are the main components of sod-podzolic soil. From above, the soil is covered with vegetation, various grasses, mosses. The topography and properties of surface rocks can have a significant impact on the internal structure of the vegetation cover.

Ecological problems

In our time, one of the main environmental problems has become the problem of forest heterogeneity, which is aggravated by selective felling of trees by humans.

Despite the fact that the broadleaf tree species is distinguished from others by its rapid growth, the forest area has greatly decreased. Entrepreneurs are engaged in cutting down trees on a huge scale, which leads to other environmental problems - the accumulation of harmful gases in the atmosphere of our planet.

Over the past 7 years, forest fires have become more frequent, whole hectares are burning through human negligence.

Forest dwellers of a rare species are illegally hunted by poachers.

Reserves of mixed and deciduous forests in Russia

Russia is being filled with more and more reserves.

The most famous largest reserve is Bolshekhekhtsirsky (Khabarovsk Territory), which is protected by the state. Trees (over 800 species), shrubs and herbaceous plants grow in it.

The specialists of this reserve carried out large-scale work to restore the population of bison, beaver, elk, and deer.

Another well-known large reserve is Kedrovaya Pad (Primorsky Territory). Only coniferous trees were supposed to grow here, but later representatives of the deciduous forest appeared: linden, maple, birch, oak.

Human economic activity

Forests have long been mastered by people.

The most popular human economic activity:

Features of mixed and deciduous forests:

Red oak

This publication continues a series of articles on choosing trees for planting on site (s). We present a far from complete list of varieties and forms of introduced species - our review covers primarily tree species growing in the central regions of the European part of Russia. This diversity should ensure the creation of landscape compositions that are different in design and harmonious in implementation.

Broadleaf trees

• Linden

In the European part of Russia, one of the main forest-forming species is small-leaved linden, or cordate (Tilia cordata) ... A characteristic feature of the 19th century Central Russian estate were linden alleys, which gave it a unique majestic and monumental flavor. The remains of such alleys, which are huge hollow trees, have survived everywhere to this day, which indicates a very long longevity of the linden.

This tree, possessing an extremely soft wood, does not resist the penetration of rot pathogens poorly, but only the core of the trunk is affected. Powerful blocking reactions do not allow rot to penetrate the vital sapwood, therefore old linden trees with hollow, empty trunks inside are quite viable and, most importantly, very stable.

Heart-shaped linden

Linden can be used for decorative and recreational purposes very widely:

• this plant tolerates pruning excellently;
• in addition to alleys, single and group landings, it can be used for trellis-type barrage landings;
• linden has a high shade tolerance, it can be planted in shaded areas (near high walls of buildings blocking the sun, deaf fences, under the canopy of trees, etc.)

Linden has a heart-shaped and negative features:

• first of all, it is susceptibility to disease. Therefore, when buying planting material, you must make sure that there are no signs of disease.
• planted plants should undergo regular forest pathological examination in order to timely take measures to combat diseases in the early stages of their development.

You can use other types of linden, in particular, large-leaved linden (Tilia platyphyllos) naturally growing in Western Europe. Long-term experience of using this breed in landscaping the Moscow region speaks of a number of its advantages over the small-leaved linden tree:

• first of all, it is a more beautiful appearance in alleys and group plantings;
• higher resistance to diseases and pests.

It's important to know

Linden requires high soil fertility, therefore, when planting it, you should use land mixtures with a high humus content or select areas with medium and heavy soils. Of all broadleaf species, this tree is the most moisture-loving and must be provided with a sufficient amount of soil moisture.

• Oak

It is the main forest-forming agent of deciduous forests in Europe. Grows in the European part of Russia English oak (Quergus robur) , - one of the most durable and largest of our trees.

Nevertheless, in plantings, with the exception of parks, this plant is quite rare, although in a number of properties it has no equal. In particular, the pedunculate oak has the highest recreational resistance and is extremely drought tolerant.

In private plots, it can be used as single plantings. It tolerates moderate pruning, so you can form very beautiful tapeworms with a spherical, obovate and even tent-shaped crown shape.

It's important to know

But it should be borne in mind that this breed is slow-growing at a young age. Therefore, it is advisable to use large-sized seedlings with a height of 2.5 - 3 meters with a crown already initially formed in the nursery.

In park plantings, it is possible to create biogroups of pedunculate oak, with the expectation of removing this species into the first tier of the stand. This species is also very promising for replacing plantings under ripe and overmature trees.

To create tree groups in semi-open spaces and in alley plantings, it is best to use red oak (Quergus rubra) - an introduced species of North American origin.

This very impressive tree has a number of advantages over English oak:

• undemanding to soil fertility;
• able to withstand its acidic reaction (but does not tolerate calcareous and moist soils);
• resistant to pests and diseases, including;
• resistant to smoke and gases.

In addition, red oak effectively reduces traffic noise and has a. Long-term experience of growing in biogroups of mixed composition shows that red oak goes well with prickly spruce, Norway maple and a number of other types of woody plants.

• Ilmovs

In the forests of the non-chernozem zone, two species from this family naturally grow: smooth elm (Ulmus laevis) and rough elm (Ulmus scabra) ... These are large trees that are part of the dominant layer of deciduous and coniferous-deciduous forests.

The use of these species for landscaping in recent decades has been constrained by a widespread disease -.

However, due to the unique structure of the shoot system, the rough elm can be recommended for creating screen-type trellis plantings. Plants of this species can easily form fan-shaped crowns with the help of pruning and tying to the trellis, with the help of which one can fence off closely located tall buildings.

For other plantings, it is better to use Dutch disease resistant squat elm (Ulmus pumila) naturally growing in Eastern Siberia and the Far East.

• Ash

Common ash (Fraxinus excelsior) - a typical plant of the dominant layer of deciduous forests of chernozem regions. North of Moscow, in forests of natural origin, it is almost never found. However, in urban plantings, it is one of the most widespread and beloved trees.This is explained by the relatively easy tolerance of transplant seedlings, rapid growth and, most importantly, a very high ability to regenerate.

Even after "barbaric" pruning, when all the branches have been cut down and only a bare piece of the trunk sticking out in the form of a pillar remains, the shoot system is quickly restored.

Ash is able to withstand even several such operations, fatal for most other species, during its life.

You can use ordinary ash in almost all types of plantings:

• single,
• alleys,
• decorative and park groups, both mixed and pure.

For single and group plantings in the foreground, it is better to choose its decorative forms with a spectacular crown.

Introduced types of ash can also be used to create decorative compositions. The most famous, introduced into our culture at the end of the 19th century American ash (Fraxinus americana) and fluffy ash, or pennsylvanian (Fraxinus pubescens) , also having decorative forms.

Common ash

The disadvantages of all types of ash include:

• poor tolerance of late spring frosts
• low resistance to damage by pests and diseases.

After frosts, ash crowns quickly recover, and to prevent the reproduction of pests and the development of diseases, regular forest pathological diagnostics is necessary, on the basis of which decisions are made on measures for further plant care.

• Maple

In addition to widespread in the forests of Europe Norway maple (Acer platanoides) , in the broad-leaved forests of the black earth part of Russia, two more types of maple naturally grow: Tatar maple ( Acer tataricum) and field maple (Acer campestre) .

Tatar maple- a large shrub or small tree up to 9 m tall, well amenable to forming. The leaves, unlike the Norway maple, are solid and not split into blades. In autumn, their yellow and reddish color is unusually effective. This species is very dressed up in May during flowering, and in June, when the set lionfish acquire a dark red color.

Tatar maple

Tatar maple can be used in single and group plantings, as well as undergrowth under large trees, improving the soil for larches, pines, birches, oaks and other trees of the first tier. It tolerates a haircut well, therefore it can be used to create high (up to 4 meters) hedges.

Field maple- the plant is more thermophilic and demanding on the soil than Norway and Tartar maples. Reaches a height of 15 m, grows quickly and is durable. It is one of the main components of the range of green building in black earth areas. It is used in alley, single and group planting, as well as second-tier trees in forest parks.

Silver maple

Norway maple- the most popular and famous type of maple in the forests of Europe. A tree that grows up to 30 m in height with a dense, broadly rounded crown. Large size, fine dense crown, slender trunk, ornamental foliage- qualities for which this breed is highly valued in green building.

It is one of the best tree species for single, alley plantings and colorful powerful groups. The autumn dress of Norway maple stands out especially impressively against the background of conifers.

Norway maple

It is quite picky about the fertility and moisture of the soil, it grows quickly, it is shade-tolerant. Withstands transplantation and urban conditions well, it is wind-resistant.

The listed qualities serve as the basis for making landscape decisions and choosing technologies when using this tree species in landscaping.

All of the above applies to the typical form of the Norway maple. For the centuries-old use of this species in culture, many decorative forms have been selected that differ in color and shape of foliage, the nature and shape of the crown, and growth characteristics.

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The tree species dominant in plant communities are called edifiers , which in translation means - media formers... It is they who create the phyto-environment to which plants of subordinate tiers are forced to adapt: ​​shrubs, grasses, mosses. In this environment, animals find their niche, including birds and insects, fungi develop, and not only wood-destroying tinder fungi, but also very necessary for plants and well known to us from many edible species.

The creation of such a natural environment on your site is the goal to which you need to strive, and you should start with the trees.

The first step should be an inventory of already growing woody vegetation in order to preserve its elements in future design decisions. This is followed by the design and planting of trees. At the next stage, compositions are created from shrubs and herbaceous perennials.

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A properly organized garden space begins with a competent design project for the site.

Broad-leaved forests are distributed mainly in the European part of the Soviet Union; they also occupy small areas in the Far East. In Siberia, both Western and Eastern, there are no such forests. This is explained by the fact that broad-leaved trees are quite thermophilic, they cannot stand the harsh continental climate.

Let's take a closer look at the broad-leaved forests that are widespread in our European plain. The most characteristic tree of these forests is the oak, as a result of which such forests are usually called oak forests. The bulk of deciduous forests are concentrated in the strip that begins in Moldova and goes to the northeast, approximately in the direction of Kiev - Kursk - Tula - Gorky - Kazan.

The climate of these regions is quite mild, moderately continental, it is largely determined by the relatively warm and humid air masses that come from the west, from the Atlantic Ocean. The average temperature of the warmest month (July) ranges from about 18 to 20 ° C, the average annual rainfall is 450-550 mm. A characteristic feature of the climate of this area is that the amount of precipitation that falls per year is approximately equal to evaporation (the amount of water that evaporates per year from a free water surface). In other words, the climate cannot be called either excessively dry (as in the steppe and desert) or too humid (as in the taiga and tundra).

The soils under deciduous forests are sod-podzolic, gray forest, some varieties of chernozem. They contain a relatively large amount of nutrients (this can be judged by the dark color of their upper horizons). Another feature of the considered soils is that, although they are sufficiently provided with moisture, they are at the same time well drained and do not have an excess of water.

What are the broadleaf forests themselves, what are their specific features, what plants are included in their composition?

The broad-leaved forest is characterized primarily by a large variety of tree species. This is especially noticeable when you compare it with the coniferous forest, with the taiga. There are much more wood species here than in the taiga - sometimes up to a dozen of them can be counted. The reason for the species richness of trees is that deciduous forests develop in more favorable natural conditions than taiga. Tree species that are demanding on the climate and soil can grow here, which do not tolerate the harsh conditions of taiga regions.

You can get a good idea of ​​the diversity of broadleaf forest tree species if you visit the famous forest area called the Tula Zaseki (it stretches as a ribbon from west to east in the southern part of the Tula region). In the oak forests of the Tula notices, there are such trees as the pedunculate oak, the small-leaved linden, two types of maple - holly and field maple, common ash, elm, elm, wild apple, wild pear (we will consider the main ones in more detail in the future).

For a broad-leaved forest, it is characteristic that the various tree species that make up its composition have different heights, forming, as it were, several groups in height. The tallest trees are oak and ash, the lower ones are Norway maple, elm and linden, even lower trees are field maple, wild apple and pear. However, trees, as a rule, do not form clearly defined tiers, well delimited from each other. Oak usually dominates, the rest of the tree species most often play the role of satellites.

The species composition of shrubs is also rich in deciduous forest. In the Tula notices, for example, there are hazel, two types of euonymus - warty and European, forest honeysuckle, brittle buckthorn, wild rose and some others.

Different types of shrubs vary greatly in height. Hazel bushes, for example, often reach a height of 5 - 6 m, and honeysuckle bushes are almost always shorter than human growth.

In a broad-leaved forest, the grass cover is usually well developed. Many plants have more or less large, wide leaf blades. Therefore, they are called broad oak grass. Some of the grasses found in oak forests always grow as single specimens, never forming dense thickets. Others, on the other hand, can almost completely cover the soil over a large area. Such massive, dominant plants in the oak forests of Central Russia most often turn out to be common, hairy sedge and yellow zelenchuk (they will be described in detail below).

Almost all herbaceous plants living in oak forests are perennials. Their life expectancy is often measured in several decades. Many of them reproduce poorly by seeds and maintain their existence mainly through vegetative propagation. Such plants, as a rule, have long aboveground or underground shoots, which are able to quickly spread in different directions, capturing new territory.

The aboveground part of many representatives of broad oak grass dies off in autumn, and only rhizomes and roots that are in the soil hibernate. They have special renewal buds, from which new shoots grow in spring. However, among the species of broad oak grass, there are also those in which the aboveground part remains green even in winter. Plants of this kind include clefthoof, hairy sedge, zelenchuk.

From the previous story, we already know that shrubs, especially blueberries and lingonberries, play an important role in coniferous forests. In a broad-leaved forest, on the contrary, there are usually no shrubs at all, they are completely not characteristic of our oak forests.

Among the herbaceous plants developing in Central Russian oak forests, the so-called oak ephemeroids are of particular interest. An example of them can be various types of crested beetles, goose onions, buttercup anemone, spring cleaver. These small, relatively stunted plants surprise us with their extraordinary "haste". They are born immediately after the snow melts, and their shoots sometimes make their way even through the snow cover that has not yet melted. It is pretty cool at this time of year, but ephemeroids nevertheless develop very quickly. A week or two after birth, they already bloom, and after another two to three weeks they ripen fruits with seeds. At the same time, the plants themselves turn yellow and lie on the ground, and then the above-ground part of them dries up. All this happens at the very beginning of summer, when it would seem that the conditions for the life of forest plants are the most favorable - enough heat and moisture. But ephemeroids have their own special "development schedule", not the same as in many other plants - they always live only in spring, and by summer they completely disappear from the vegetation cover. Early spring is most favorable for their development, since at this time of the year, when trees and shrubs are not yet covered with foliage, it is very light in the forest. There is enough moisture in the soil during this period. And the high temperature, such as in summer, is not necessary for ephemeroids at all.

All ephemeroids are perennials. After their aerial part dries up at the beginning of summer, they do not die. Living underground organs are preserved in the soil - some have tubers, others have bulbs, and others have more or less thick rhizomes. These organs serve as repositories of reserve nutrients, mainly starch. It is due to the "building material" stored in advance that stems with leaves and flowers develop so quickly in spring.

Ephemeroids are characteristic of our Central Russian oak forests. There are up to a dozen species in total. Their flowers have a bright beautiful color - lilac, blue, yellow. When there are many such plants and they all bloom, a motley colorful carpet is obtained.

In addition to herbaceous plants, mosses are also found in oak forests on the soil. However, in this respect, oak forests are very different from taiga forests. In the taiga, we often see a solid green carpet of mosses on the soil. This never happens in oak forests. Here, the role of mosses is very modest - they are occasionally found in the form of small spots on piles of earth, thrown out by a mole. It is noteworthy that special types of mosses are widespread in the oak forest - not at all those that form a solid green carpet in the taiga. Why is there no moss cover in the oak forest? One of the main reasons is that leaf litter, which accumulates on the soil surface in a broad-leaved forest, has a depressing effect on mosses.

Let us now get acquainted with the most important plants of oak forests. First, we will talk about trees. It is they that form the upper, dominant layer in the forest and determine many of the features of the forest environment.

English oak (Quercus robur). This tree grows wild in our country over a large area - from Leningrad in the north to almost Odessa in the south and from the state border in the west to the Urals in the east. The area of ​​its natural distribution in the USSR has the form of a wide wedge directed from west to east. The blunt end of this wedge rests against the Urals in the Ufa region.

Oak is a relatively thermophilic tree species. He cannot stand the harsh conditions of the taiga regions. Oak is also demanding on soil fertility. It will not be found on very poor soils (for example, on sand dunes). Oak also does not grow on waterlogged, waterlogged soils. However, it tolerates the lack of moisture in the soil well.

The appearance of the oak is quite characteristic: a lush, curly crown, twisting branches, a dark gray trunk covered with thick bark with deep cracks.

An old oak tree that grew in an open place from a young age is never tall. The crown of such a tree is very wide and starts almost from the ground itself. An oak grown in a forest looks completely different. It is tall, slender, and its crown is narrow, laterally compressed and starts at a rather high height. All this is a consequence of the competition for light that takes place between trees in the forest. When trees are close to each other, they stretch strongly upward.

In the spring, the oak blossoms late, one of the last among our trees. Its "slowness" is a useful property: after all, young leaves and stems of this tree, which have barely been born and have not yet had time to grow enough, are very sensitive to cold, they die from frost. And in spring, frosts are sometimes quite late.

The oak blooms when it still has very small leaves, and the trees seem to be dressed in thin green lace. Oak flowers are very small and inconspicuous. Male, or staminate, flowers are collected in peculiar inflorescences - thin yellowish-greenish hanging earrings that slightly resemble hazel earrings. These earrings hang down in whole bunches from the branches and almost do not differ in color from the young, still very small leaves.

The female or pistillate oak flowers are more difficult to find. They are very tiny - no more than a pinhead. Each of them looks like a barely noticeable greenish grain with a crimson-red top. These flowers are located singly or 2-3 at the ends of special thin stems. It is from them that the familiar acorns are formed by the fall. After flowering, a small cup-shaped wrapper first grows, and then the acorn itself.

Acorns are very capricious: they absolutely cannot stand drying. As soon as they lose even a small part of the water, they die. Acorns are sensitive to frost. Finally, they rot very easily in warmth. Therefore, it is rather difficult to store them in artificial conditions for a long time. But sometimes forestry workers need to keep them alive for sowing for many months - from autumn to spring. There is no such problem in nature. Acorns that have fallen in the forest in late autumn hibernate in a damp bed of leaves under a thick layer of snow, which protects them from drying out and frost.

Germination of an acorn is peculiar and resembles the germination of a pea: the cotyledons do not rise above the soil surface, as in many plants, but remain in the ground. A thin green stalk rises upward. At first, it is leafless, and only after a while, small, but typically oak leaves can be seen on its top.

Oak is capable of multiplying not only by seeds. Like many other deciduous trees, it produces growth from the stump. After the oak tree (of course, not very old) is cut down, many young shoots soon appear on the bark of the stump. Over time, some of them grow into mature trees, and the stump is completely or partially destroyed.

On the surface of the saw cut of a fresh oak stump, it is clearly visible that almost all wood, with the exception of the narrow outer ring, has a brownish color. Hence, the trunk of the tree is mostly darker wood. This part of the trunk (the so-called core) has already served its time and does not participate in the life of the tree. The dark color of wood is due to the fact that it is impregnated with special substances that, as it were, preserve fabrics and prevent the development of rot.

The lighter, almost white outer layer of the wood is called sapwood. On a tree stump, it looks like a rather narrow ring. It is along this layer that the soil solution that the roots absorb - water with a small amount of nutrient salts - rises up the trunk.

If the stump is smooth enough, it is easy to see many tiny holes on the surface of the sapwood, like pricks from a thin needle. These are the thinnest tube-vessels cut across, which run along the trunk. It is along them that the soil solution rises. There are the same vessels in the dark heartwood, but only they are clogged, and water does not pass through them.

Vessels are not randomly located on the surface of the stump. They form clusters in the form of thin concentric rings. Each such ring corresponds to one year of the tree's life. The rings of vessels on the stump can be used to calculate the age of the oak.

Oak is a valuable tree species. Its heavy, sturdy wood has many uses. It is used to make parquet, all kinds of furniture, barrels for beer and wine, etc. Oak firewood is very good: it gives a lot of heat. From the bark of oak, tannins are obtained, which are necessary for the manufacture of leather.

Small-leaved linden(Tilia cordata). Linden in the wild can be found in many areas of the European part of the country, except for the Far North, as well as the south and southeast. It even exists in some places beyond the Urals. The area of ​​natural growth of this tree species is somewhat similar to the corresponding area for oak. However, linden is much farther than oak, spreads to the north and especially to the east, that is, to areas with a more severe climate: it is less thermophilic.

In contrast to oak, linden has great shade tolerance. This can be judged even by the appearance of the tree alone. The main sign of shade tolerance is a dense, dense crown.

Linden buds are arranged alternately on the branches. They are quite large, ovoid, perfectly smooth and shiny. However, they have one distinctive feature - each bud is covered with only two scales. Such buds are not found in our other trees.

Linden leaf blades have a characteristic, so-called heart-shaped shape, and are noticeably asymmetric: one half of the leaf is slightly smaller than the other. The edge of the leaf is finely serrated, it is serrate, as the botanists say. Linden leaves fallen to the ground, unlike oak leaves, quickly rot. That is why there is almost no litter on the soil in the linden forest in summer. Fallen leaves of linden contain a lot of calcium needed by plants, as a result of which they improve the nutritional properties of the soil in the forest. This is a kind of forest fertilizer.

Linden blooms much later than all our other trees - already in the middle of summer. Its flowers are small, pale yellow, inconspicuous, but have a wonderful aroma and are rich in nectar. This tree is one of our best honey plants. Linden flowers are also valuable for their healing properties. Infusion of dried flowers, linden tea, drink for colds.

Linden fruits are small, almost black nuts. They do not fall from the tree one by one, but several at a time on a common twig. Each branch has a wide, thin wing. Thanks to this device, a twig with fruits, breaking away from the tree, spins in the air, which slows down its fall to the ground. As a result, the seeds spread further away from the mother plant.

Linden seeds, once on the ground, never germinate in the first spring. Before germinating, they lie for at least a year. To acquire the ability to germinate, the seeds must undergo a fairly long cooling at a temperature of about zero and, moreover, in a moist state. This process, as we already know, is called stratification.

Linden sprouts look very peculiar. They are tiny plants with a thin stem that is no longer than a pin. The stem bears at the end two small green cotyledons of the original shape. They are deeply incised and somewhat resemble the front paw of a mole. In such a strange plant, few people recognize the future linden tree. After a while, the first true leaves appear at the end of the stem. But they are still not very similar in shape to the leaves of an adult tree.

In the recent past, linden was widely used by humans for various household needs. From its spongy bark, rich in strong fiber, bast was obtained, necessary for weaving bast shoes, making matting, and washcloths. Soft linden wood, devoid of a kernel, was also widely used - spoons, bowls, rolling pins, spindles and other household utensils were made from it. Linden wood is still used for a variety of crafts.

Norway maple(Acer platanoides). Maple is one of the most common trees in our broadleaf forests. However, its role in the forest is usually modest - it is just an admixture to the dominant tree species.

Maple leaves are large, rounded-angular in shape, with large sharp protrusions along the edge. Botanists call these leaves palate-lobed.

Maple leaves are beautifully colored in autumn. Some trees turn lemon yellow, others reddish orange. Maple autumn outfit always attracts attention. You will never see any damage done by caterpillars and beetles on maple leaves - for some reason, insects do not touch the foliage of this tree.

Maple is notable for the fact that it is one of the few trees in our country that has a white milky sap. The release of such sap is characteristic almost exclusively of trees in warmer countries - subtropical and tropical. In temperate latitudes, this is rare. To see the milky sap of a maple, you need to break the leaf petiole in the middle of its length. A droplet of thick white liquid will soon appear at the rupture site. The release of milky sap in maple is noticeable only soon after foliage blooming - in late spring and early summer.

Norway maple - branch with fruits

Maple blooms in spring, but not very early. Its flowers bloom at a time when the tree is not yet covered with foliage, it has just appeared small leaves. The flowering maple is clearly visible even from afar: in the crown of the tree, on the bare branches, you can see many greenish-yellow bundle-shaped inflorescences, similar to loose lumps. When you come closer to the tree, you feel the specific sour-honey smell of flowers. A maple tree has several types of flowers in the same tree. Some of them are sterile, others give rise to fruit. However, all flowers contain nectar and are readily visited by bees. Maple is one of the good honey plants.

Maple fruits that develop from flowers have a peculiar structure. An unripe fruit consists of two winged fruits sticking out in opposite directions and adhering to each other. But after ripening, they separate and fall off one by one. Each maple fruit, in its thickened part, contains one seed. The seed is flat, round, it somewhat resembles a lentil grain, but much larger. Almost all the contents of the seed are two long cotyledon plates. They are arranged very compactly - they are strongly compressed into a folded flat lump. If you break a maple seed, you will be surprised to see that it is light green, pistachio-colored inside.

In this, maple differs from very many plants - they have white or yellowish seeds inside.

Winged maple fruits fall from the tree in a very peculiar way - they rotate rapidly, like a propeller, and smoothly sink to the ground. The speed of such a fall is small, and therefore the wind carries these fruits far to the side.

Maple is also notable for the fact that it has developed the ability to extremely early germination of seeds in spring. If there are warm sunny days, the seeds begin to germinate already on the surface of the melting snow, at a temperature of about zero. Roots appear and then begin to grow right in the snow. None of our trees, except maple, do this.

In the event that the sprouting root managed to safely reach the moist soil, the seedling development proceeds normally. The stalk begins to grow rapidly, the cotyledons expand, and after a while a pair of true leaves appears.

Maple has a rather valuable wood, which is widely used in joinery, turning and furniture industries.

This concludes our acquaintance with the trees of our Central Russian oak forests.

Let's get acquainted now with the main shrubs.

Hazel, or hazel(Corylus avellana), is one of the most common shrubs in oak forests. This shrub is familiar to many of us: delicious nuts ripen by autumn. Hazel fruits attract not only humans, they are eaten by some animals living in the forest - squirrels, forest mice.

The hazel tree differs from all our other shrubs in that its young thin twigs have pubescence of protruding rigid hairs of the original shape. A separate hair resembles a tiny pin with a head at the end (this is clearly visible through a magnifying glass). The same dehumidification occurs on the leaf petioles. Hazel hairs are called glandular, since the balls that we see at their ends are the smallest glands.

Hazel blooms in early spring, when the last patches of snow still lie in the forest. On one of the warm spring days, dense brownish catkins on its branches suddenly lengthen, hang, turn yellow. When the wind gusts, they swing in different directions, scatter their pollen, which resembles a fine yellow powder. Hazel earrings are similar in appearance to birch and alder earrings - these are, as we already know, male, staminate inflorescences.

Female hazel inflorescences are almost entirely hidden inside special buds. They consist of a few very small flowers arranged in a dense cluster. During flowering, we see only one stigma of these flowers - thin crimson antennae, which protrude in a bundle from the most ordinary-looking buds. The purpose of the crimson tendrils is to trap pollen. And they are born a little earlier than the pollen begins to scatter. This has a certain biological meaning: the perceiving apparatus must be ready in advance.

After the pollen hits the tendril, fertilization occurs and the development of the fetus begins. At first, no fruits are visible, an ordinary shoot with leaves grows from the bud. Only later, in the summer, you will notice that there will be nuts on it.

Hazel fruits are a valuable food product. Ripe nuts taste especially good, their kernel is rich in starch and contains up to 60% vegetable fat. There are also vitamins A and B in nuts.

The structure of the nut is in many ways similar to the structure of the acorn of an oak. A nut, like an acorn, is a fruit containing only one seed. In this seed, fleshy cotyledons are very well developed, containing a supply of nutrition for a young plant. The germination of the seed is similar: in the hazel, like in the oak, the cotyledons always remain in the ground.

Warty euonymus(Euonymus verrucosa). The branches of this shrub are special - they are dark green in color and covered with many tiny tubercles, as if dotted with countless small warts. This is where the specific name of the plant comes from. You will not find such warty branches on our other trees and shrubs.

Warty euonymus - a twig with fruits

Euonymus blooms in late spring - early summer. Its flowers are inconspicuous, small. Each of them has four rounded petals of a brownish or greenish dull color. The petals are spread wide and arranged like a cross. Euonymus flowers seem to be lifeless, as if they are wax. Their smell is specific, not entirely pleasant. Blossoming of euonymus begins at about the same time as that of lily of the valley, and lasts for several weeks.

At the beginning of autumn, euonymus attracts attention with its original pendant fruits. They hang from branches on long strings-stalks. The color of the fruit is variegated and beautiful - a combination of pink, orange and black. You probably paid attention to these bright fruits more than once when you were in the forest in the autumn.

Let's take a closer look at the fruits of the euonymus. At the top of each pendant there are dark pink dry fruit valves; below, on short strings, lumps of orange juicy pulp hang, in which several black seeds are immersed. At the spindle tree, we see a rare phenomenon: after ripening, the seeds of a plant do not spill out of the fruit, but remain in a suspended state, as if on a leash. This facilitates the work of birds, which willingly peck on the sweetish pulp along with the seeds. The bright color of euonymus fruits makes them well visible to birds, contributes to the better spread of plant seeds.

The main carrier of euonymus seeds is one of our most common birds - the repola (linnet).

The euonymus is also notable for the fact that the bark of the branches and especially the roots of this shrub contains a substance from which you can get the well-known gutta-percha. It is used as an insulating material in electrical engineering, toys are made from it, etc. Therefore, euonymus can be a supplier of gutta-percha. However, in practice, it is almost never used in this regard - the content of gutta-percha in the plant is low.

Let us turn to the herbaceous plants characteristic of our oak forests. We will consider only some of them - the most common or especially interesting for some biological features.

To dream ordinary (Aegopodium podagraria). In the old oak forest, you can sometimes see on the soil extensive dense thickets of this rather large herbaceous plant. The thickets of dreaming consist of only one leaf, the shape of the leaves is quite characteristic. The leaf petiole at the top forks into three separate, thinner petioles, and each of them, in turn, branches again in the same way at the end. Separate leaf lobules are attached to these thinnest terminal ramifications, there are a total of nine of them. The leaf of such a structure is called twice trifoliate by botany. It should be noted, however, that dream leaves do not always consist of nine separate leaves. Sometimes some of them, adjacent, merge with each other into one whole. And then the total number of leaves decreases - there are no longer nine, but only eight or seven.

Although it is a typical forest plant and thrives in the forest, it almost never blooms under the canopy of trees. The flowering of the plant can only be observed in an open place or in a rare forest, where there is a lot of light. Under these conditions, a high stem with several leaves appears at the dream, and characteristic inflorescences - complex umbrellas - develop at its top. The inflorescences consist of many very small white flowers and in appearance somewhat resemble carrot inflorescences.

The widespread occurrence of dreaming in oak forests is explained by the fact that it reproduces very vigorously vegetatively, with the help of long creeping rhizomes. Such rhizomes are able to quickly grow in different directions and give rise to numerous aerial shoots and leaves.

Sleep is a food plant. Edible, for example, fresh are its young leaves, rich in vitamin C. True, they have a peculiar taste that not everyone may like. Dream leaves have other uses as a food product: in some areas they are used for cooking cabbage soup along with sorrel and nettle. At the same time, runny is considered to be a good forage plant for livestock.

Hairy sedge(Sageh pilosa). This plant often forms a continuous dark green canopy under the canopy of oak and especially 'lipe forests. Leaves of hairy sedge are not wider than a pencil, ribbon-like. The edges of the leaves are soft, covered with numerous short hairs. It is because of the pubescence of the leaves that this sedge is called hairy.

Whenever you come to the forest, hairy sedge always turns green. It hibernates in green. In the spring, new leaves grow to replace the old overwintered leaves. They are immediately visible by their lighter color. Over time, young leaves darken, and old ones gradually dry out.

Under the ground, the hairy sedge has long thin rhizomes, no thicker than a bicycle spoke. They are able to quickly spread in all directions, leaves grow from them. Thanks to this spread of rhizomes, the plant captures new territories. Sedge rarely reproduces by seeds in the forest.

Sedge blooms, like many of our forest grasses, in spring. During flowering, its male spikelets are very noticeable - tassels, light yellow from the stamens, rising on high stalks. Female spikelets, on the other hand, do not attract attention to themselves. They consist of an axis thin, like a thread, on which small greenish flowers sit singly. These flowers look like small tree buds with three white tendrils at the end. Later, by autumn, a small, millet-sized grain, a swollen green bag, inside which an even smaller fruit is placed - a nut, ripens from a female flower.

Zelenchuk yellow (Galeobdolon luteum) - the plant is low, much lower than the floodplain and hairy sedge.

The appearance of this plant is very variable. Only such signs as the tetrahedral stem and the opposite arrangement of leaves never change. And the leaves themselves vary greatly in size and shape - from larger, slightly similar to nettle leaves, to small, almost round. The stems are also very different - some are short, erect, others are very long, creeping, with bunches of roots in some places.

Long creeping aerial shoots of zelenchuk can quickly grow on the soil surface in different directions. That is why Zelenchuk almost always grows in dense thickets. Zelenchuk also has one more interesting feature - a white pattern on the upper side of some leaves. This pattern is made up of individual specks. The white color of the spots is due to the fact that under the thin upper skin of the leaf there is a space filled with air. It is the air cavities that create the effect of white color.

When zelenchuk blooms, it looks a bit like "dull nettles" (this is what they sometimes call white lamb), but its flowers are not white, but light yellow. The very shape of the flowers is very similar: the corolla, as botanists say, is two-lipped, it is somewhat similar to the wide-open mouth of some animal. Zelenchuk, like white lamb, belongs to the labiate family.

Zelenchuk blooms in late spring, a little later than bird cherry. Flowering does not last long - two weeks. When the yellow two-lipped corollas fall to the ground, only a green cup in the form of a funnel with five long teeth along the edge of the flower remains on the plant. At the bottom of the calyx, over time, a dry fruit ripens, consisting of four separate small lobules of an irregularly angular shape.

The name "Zelenchuk" was given to the plant, probably because it remains green all year round - both in summer and in winter.

European hoof(Asarum europaeum). The leaves of this plant have a very characteristic shape: the leaf blade is round, but on the side where the petiole approaches it, it is deeply carved. Botanists call this leaf reniform.

The leaves of the hoof are large, rather dense, dark green and glossy above. They winter alive under the snow. If you take a fresh leaf and grind, you will feel a specific smell, which is somewhat reminiscent of the smell of black pepper.

The stalk of the hoof never rises above the surface of the soil, it is always spread over the ground and here and there is attached to it by roots. At its end, two, already familiar to us, develop, leaves on long thin petioles. The leaves are arranged opposite, one against the other. In autumn, at the very end of the stem, in the fork between the leaf petioles, you can see a large bud, which is covered with thin translucent covers on the outside. Under these films, the rudiments of two future leaves are hidden. They are very small, folded in half, but already have a green color. In the center of the kidney there is a small ball that looks like a pellet. If you gently break it, we will see tiny stamens inside. This is a bud. Consequently, the buds of the hoof are formed long before flowering - already in the fall.

In spring, the clefthoof blooms very early, soon after the snow melts. But if you come to the forest at this time, you may not even notice the flowers. The fact is that they are located near the ground and are covered from above with dry fallen leaves. They have a peculiar reddish-brown color, unusual for flowers. The flower of the hoof has only three petals.

In the middle of summer, fruits are formed from the flowers of the hoof. Outwardly, they differ little from flowers. The fruits contain brownish shiny seeds the size of a grain of millet. Each of them is equipped with a small fleshy appendage of white color. This appendage attracts ants. Having found a seed in the forest, the ant carries it to its home. Of course, not all seeds can be delivered to their destination; a lot of them are lost along the way and remain in different places in the forest, often far from the mother plant. This is where these seeds germinate.

Unclear lungwort(Pulmonaria obscura). The lungwort in the deciduous forest blooms, perhaps, earlier than all other plants. Before the snow had melted, its short stems with beautiful noticeable flowers appeared. On the same stem, some flowers are dark pink, others are cornflower blue. If you look closely, it is easy to see that the buds and younger flowers are pink, and the older ones that are fading are blue. Each flower changes color throughout its life.

The color change during the flowering process is explained by the special properties of anthocyanin, a coloring substance that is contained in the petals. This substance resembles a chemical indicator litmus: its solution changes color depending on the acidity of the environment. The content of cells in the petals of lungwort at the beginning of flowering has a weakly acidic reaction, and later a weakly alkaline one. This is what causes the color change of the petals.

Due to their variegation, the raspberry-blue inflorescences of the lungwort with flowers of different colors are especially well visible to pollinating insects. Consequently, the "recoloring" of flowers has a certain biological significance.

In spring, not only lungwort blooms in the oak forest, but also some other plants. Almost all flowers, like lungwort, are brightly colored. At this time of the year, there is a lot of light in the oak forest, and here it is not the white color of the flowers that is more noticeable, as in the shady spruce forest, but different - crimson, lilac, blue, yellow.

The lungwort got its name because its flowers contain a lot of nectar. This is one of our earliest honey plants.

The lungwort is a beautiful flower that everyone who finds themselves in the forest in early spring willingly picks. The only pity is that some flower lovers are too addicted to collecting lungwort. Instead of a modest bouquet, they have a whole armful in their hands. These people destroy many plants in vain. Indeed, to admire the beauty of flowers, a few stems are enough.

Male dryopteris (Dryopteris filixmas). This is the name of one of the most common broadleaf forest ferns. In appearance, it is similar to many other forest ferns: the plant has large feathery leaves collected in a broad-funnel-shaped basal rosette. A rosette of leaves develops at the end of a short and thick rhizome located at the soil surface. A characteristic feature of the leaves of this type of fern is large reddish scales on a leaf petiole (there are especially many scales in the lowest part of the petiole, near the ground). The leaves themselves are double-pinnate: they are dissected into larger lobes of the first order, and those, in turn, into smaller lobes of the second order.

Every autumn, the leaves of the thyme die off, in the spring new ones grow to replace them. At an early stage of development, they look like spirally twisted flat snails. By summer, the snails are completely untwisted, turning into ordinary leaves. At the end of summer, on the lower surface of the leaf, you can usually see many small brownish specks-sori, similar to fat dots. A separate sorus is a bunch of very small sacs with spores not visible to the naked eye. The spores themselves are negligible, like dust. After ripening, they spill out of their containers and fall on the ground. These tiny dust-like particles serve as fern propagation means. Once in favorable conditions, spores germinate. They give rise to tiny, no more than a nail, green plates called buds. After a while, the fern itself begins to form on the outgrowth. At the very beginning of development, a young fern has only one small leaf shorter than a match and a short root extending into the soil. Over the years, the plant grows larger and larger. Full maturity requires at least one to two decades. Only then does the fern become fully adult, it starts to bring spores. In terms of its development cycle, the fern has many similarities with the lyre, which has already been described.

The life of the male fern, like many of our other ferns, is closely related to the forest. It is quite shade-tolerant, but at the same time picky about moisture and richness of the soil.

Buttercup anemone (Anemone ranunculoides) is a small herbaceous plant that is interesting in its developmental characteristics. It is one of the most common oak ephemeroids. When in early spring, after a few allotments after the snow melts, you come to the forest, this plant is already blooming. The flowers of the anemone are bright yellow, slightly resembling buttercup flowers. The plant itself has a straight stem, rising from the ground, at the end of it there are three leaves, directed in different directions and strongly dissected, even higher is a thin peduncle, which ends with a flower. The height of the whole plant is small - no more than a pencil. When the anemone blooms, forest trees and shrubs barely begin to bloom. At this time, there is a lot of light in the forest, almost like in an open place.

After the trees are covered with foliage and the forest has become dark, the development of the anemone ends. It begins to turn yellow, the stem with leaves withers and lies on the ground. At the beginning of summer, no trace of the plant remains. Only in the soil is a living rhizome preserved, which next spring gives rise to a new shoot with leaves and a flower. The rhizome of the anemone is located horizontally in the uppermost soil layer, directly under the fallen leaves. It looks like a twisting knotty knot of brownish color. If you break such a rhizome, you can see that it is white and starchy inside, like a potato tuber. Here are stored reserves of nutrients - the very "building material" that is necessary for the rapid growth of the above-ground shoot in the spring.

Haller's Corydalis (Corydalis halleri). In our oak groves, besides anemone, there are other ephemeroids. These include Haller's corydalis. It blooms in early spring, even earlier than the anemone. Soon after the snow melts, we already see its low stems with delicate lace leaves and a dense inflorescence of lilac flowers. Corydalis is a miniature plant, fragile and very graceful. Its flowers have a pleasant smell and are rich in nectar.

The development of the corydalis in many ways resembles the development of the already familiar anemone. Its flowering is short. If the weather is warm, the Corydalis fades very quickly - after a few days. And instead of flowers, small pod-shaped fruits are already visible. A little later, black shiny seeds fall out of them on the ground. Each such seed has a white fleshy appendage that attracts ants. Corydalis is one of many forest plants whose seeds are spread by ants.

Corydalis fruits ripen earlier than all other forest plants. And when the trees and shrubs dress with young foliage, the corydalis turns yellow, lays down on the ground and soon dries up. Under the ground, she has a juicy live nodule - a small yellowish ball the size of a cherry. This is where the reserves of nutrients, mainly starch, are stored, necessary for the rapid development of the shoot next spring. At the end of the nodule there is a large bud, from which the fragile stalk with lilac flowers, already familiar to us, will subsequently grow.

Corydalis is one of those plants that remain in the same place all their lives. She has no rhizomes, no creeping aerial shoots that could spread to the sides. New crested crested species can only grow from seeds. Of course, it takes more than one year from the germination of a seed to the formation of an adult capable of blooming a plant.

These are some of the characteristic plants in our oak forests. Each of these plants has remarkable features of structure, reproduction, development.

And now let's turn again to the oak forests themselves. Our oak forests are of great national economic importance, they serve as suppliers of valuable timber, play an important water and soil protection role. Oak groves are common in densely populated areas of our country and are very strongly influenced by humans. What changes do these forests undergo under the influence of human activity, what happens to them after felling?

After cutting down an old oak forest, oak usually does not regenerate by itself. Shoots do not appear from stumps, and young oak trees that have grown under the canopy of mature trees are drowned out in the open by various grasses, bushes and perish. On the site of a felled oak forest, young birch or aspen usually appear soon, and after a few decades we see a birch or aspen forest here. There is a change in tree species familiar to us from the previous story. In order to prevent the replacement of oak with less valuable trees, forestry workers have to put in a lot of effort. For this purpose, sowing of acorns or planting of young oak trees specially grown in the nursery is done in felling areas. However, just sowing or planting an oak is not enough. Young oak trees still need to be taken care of: from time to time it is necessary to cut down the neighboring trees that drown them, especially the rapidly growing birch and aspen. In short, it takes a lot of time and labor to restore an oak forest after felling. Of course, if a not too old oak tree is cut down, special efforts are not required to restore the oak: from the stumps, growth appears, which grows quickly and eventually turns into an oak forest. All other trees that make up the deciduous forest - linden, various types of maple, ash, elm, elm - reproduce well from the stump with shoots.

So, the main enemies of oak in the strip of oak forests are small-leaved trees - birch and aspen. They often replace oak after felling, forming secondary, or derivative, forests. Both of these trees have a number of interesting structural and life features. Birch has been described in detail earlier. Now let's get acquainted with the aspen.

Aspen (Populus tremula) is very widespread: it can be found in most of the territory of our country. This tree is relatively unpretentious to climatic conditions, but does not tolerate excessively dry, as well as too nutrient-poor soil.

The appearance of the aspen is original and not devoid of a certain attractiveness. The trunk is dark gray only in the lower part, above it has a beautiful grayish-green color, especially bright in young trees, when their bark is moistened with rain. In autumn, the crowns of aspens are very elegant: the leaves before falling off are painted in different colors - from yellow to red red.

One of the characteristic features of aspen is its very mobile leaves, which move even from a weak breeze. This is due to the fact that the leaf blades are attached to the end of a long and thin petiole, and it is flat, strongly flattened from the sides. Due to this shape, the petiole bends especially easily to the right and left. That is why aspen leaf blades are so mobile.

Aspen - a branch with male earrings in early spring; Aspen - a branch with female earrings in early spring

Aspen blooms in early spring, long before the leaves appear. She belongs to the number of dioecious plants: some of her trees are male, others are female. On the male trees during flowering, you can see the reddish shaggy catkins hanging down from the branches. These are staminate inflorescences. There are also earrings on female trees, but of a different type - thinner, greenish. They also hang from the branches. These earrings are composed of many small pistillate flowers.

Soon after flowering, male earrings fall to the ground, while female ones remain on the tree and begin to increase in size. At the end of spring, in these earrings, instead of flowers, fruits are formed - elongated-oval capsules the size of a grain of wheat.

When ripe, the capsule cracks into two longitudinal halves and the seeds inside it are released. The individual seed is so small that it is barely visible to the naked eye. It is surrounded by many of the finest hairs. Sprinkling out of the capsules, the seeds fly through the air for a long time.

Aspen seeds quickly lose their germination after ripening. Therefore, seedlings can only appear if the seeds immediately fall on moist soil.

In the forest where there are adult specimens of aspen, here and there young aspen trees with characteristic “poplar” leaves are usually found. Their height is small - barely up to the knee of a person. If you dig up the ground around the stem of some aspen, you will find an interesting detail: the plant sits on a rather thick (like a pencil or larger) root, which extends horizontally and runs close to the soil surface. This root stretches a long distance both in one direction and in the other, and it starts from an adult tree. So, small aspens in the forest are nothing more than shoots that grow from the root of a large aspen. These are the so-called root suckers.

Up to ten or more root suckers can form on one root. They are usually separated from each other by a considerable distance. Some of them are quite far away from the mother tree - 30-35 m.

Thus, in the forest, aspen reproduces almost exclusively by root suckers, that is, in a vegetative way. In forest conditions, this is much more reliable than seed reproduction. Aspen almost never grows from a stump.

Aspen lives little - less than a hundred years. Its trunk already at an early age usually has rot inside, mature trees are almost all rotten in the middle. Such trees break easily from strong winds. Aspen is completely unsuitable for firewood - it gives little heat. Aspen wood is mainly used for matches. In addition, tubs, barrels, arches, etc. are made from it.

Let us now turn to the history of deciduous forests.

In the prehistoric era, deciduous forests in the European part of our country were much more widespread than they are now. However, in the past few centuries, the area of ​​these forests has been greatly reduced due to intensive deforestation. To date, only a small part of the former forest areas have survived.

Many facts are known that indicate the widespread distribution of oak forests in the past. During the time of Ivan Kalita, oak forests approached Moscow itself from the south, and logs were taken from these forests for the construction of the walls of the Moscow Kremlin. Ivan the Terrible loved to hunt in the Kuntsevskaya oak forest in the immediate vicinity of Moscow (now this place is within the city limits). Oak forests once closely adjoined Kiev, Vladimir, Suzdal. Now they are almost gone.

Our oak forests were severely destroyed in the past due to the high demand for oak wood. However, another circumstance also mattered. Oak forests occupy very favorable soil for agriculture - rather moist, well-drained, rich in nutrients. And therefore, when our ancestors needed arable land, they first of all cut down oak forests.

In place of the former deciduous forests, we now often see arable land. Various agricultural crops are grown on them: wheat, rye, sunflower, buckwheat, corn. Fruit trees also grow well on these lands: apple, pear, cherry, etc. In the areas of the former distribution of broad-leaved forests, there are many orchards.

Before finishing the story about deciduous forests, it is necessary to dwell on how these forests change in the direction from west to east, from Ukraine with its mild climate to Tataria, where the climate is more severe. Changes in vegetation concern primarily the composition of the tree species that make up the forest. Western oak forests, which develop in warmer and more humid climates, are distinguished by a particularly rich set of trees. Here, in addition to tree species that are common in Central Russian broad-leaved forests, you can find others, such as hornbeam, wild cherry, sycamore. To the east, in the oak forests of Central Russia, these trees are no longer found. And in the extreme east, in Tataria, the species composition of trees is even more impoverished (for example, ash disappears). A general pattern can be traced: as the climate becomes less favorable, the number of tree species found in deciduous forests decreases.

Mixed forest - a forest in which both deciduous trees and conifers grow. Moreover, coniferous trees among deciduous, or, conversely, deciduous among conifers should be at least 5%.

Important! Mixed-small-leaved forests are approximately 90% composed of coniferous and small-leaved tree species.

What trees grow in mixed forests

What types of trees prevail in the forest largely depends on the geographical location and climatic conditions:

• in the west and central part of Europe in mixed forests prevail - maple, oak, ash, Linden, elm, spruce and Pine;
• in Eastern Europe is often found Apple tree, elm;
• on the territory of the Caucasus in mixed forests grow oak, maple, beech, fir, spruce;
• in the Far East region is dominated by larch gmelin,Mongolian oak, Linden, ash, Birch, Manchurian walnut, hornbeam, cedar pine, spruce, white fir;
• in Southeast Asia on the territory of mountain forests can be found yew, fir, hemlock, spruce, birch, larch, maple, linden;
• in the Appalachian region (North America) there are sugar maple, beech, hornbeam,balsam fir;
• the southern forests of North America are dominated by sequoia, Douglas fir, western hemlock, yellow pine, bicolor oak.

Natural features of mixed forests

A characteristic feature of mixed forests is that the trees grow in distinct layers. The upper tier is formed by tall trees: pine, spruce, larch. The next tier is represented by oaks, lindens, birches, maples, aspens, etc. The lower tier is occupied by shrubs - hazel, blackberry, wild rose, etc.

In the early 2000s. a group of scientists, which included representatives from several countries, investigated the relationship between the diversity of trees and important natural processes in the forest.

The results were published in the journal Nature Communications. The researchers concluded that different types of trees must be present in forests to maintain balance. Since each species has a different impact on the ecosystem of the forest. For example, birch accumulates carbon dioxide better than others, pine promotes the harvest of berries, spruce accelerates the growth of nearby growing trees.

Common features of flora and fauna

Plants and animals of the mixed forest are very diverse. In terms of the species richness of flora and fauna, they are comparable only to the tropical jungle and are home to many predators and herbivores. Here, squirrels and other animals live on large trees, birds make nests on the crowns, hares and foxes make holes at the roots, and beavers live near rivers. The species abundance of the mixed zone is very high. Here, both the inhabitants of the taiga and deciduous forests, and the inhabitants of the forest-steppes feel comfortable. Some are awake all year round, while others hibernate for the winter. Plants and animals of the mixed forest have a symbiotic relationship. Many herbivores feed on various berries, which are abundant in mixed forests.

Bushes

Mixed forests of Russia abound with shrubs. The understory layer is unusually developed. For oak massifs, the presence of hazel, euonymus, wolf bast, forest honeysuckle is typical, and in the northern zone - buckthorn brittle. Rosehip grows on the edges and in woodlands. In the forests of the coniferous-broad-leaved type, there are also liana-like plants: new fence, climbing hops, bittersweet nightshade.

Sources of

Broadleaf plants

The broad-leaved forest is characterized, first of all, by a large variety of tree species. This is especially noticeable when you compare it with the coniferous forest, with the taiga. There are much more wood species here than in the taiga - sometimes up to a dozen of them can be counted. The reason for the species richness of trees is that deciduous forests develop in more favorable natural conditions than taiga. Tree species that are demanding on the climate and soil can grow here, which do not tolerate the harsh conditions of taiga regions.

You can get a good idea of ​​the diversity of broadleaf forest tree species if you visit the famous forest area called the Tula Zaseki (it stretches as a ribbon from west to east in the southern part of the Tula region).

In the oak forests of the Tula notices, there are such trees as pedunculate oak, small-leaved linden, two types of maple - holly and field maple, common ash, elm, elm, wild apple, wild pear.

For a broad-leaved forest, it is characteristic that the various tree species that make up its composition have different heights, forming, as it were, several groups in height.

The tallest trees are oak and ash, the lower ones are Norway maple, elm and linden, even lower trees are field maple, wild apple and pear. However, trees, as a rule, do not form clearly defined tiers, well delimited from each other.

Oak usually dominates, the rest of the tree species most often play the role of satellites.
The species composition of shrubs is also rich in deciduous forest. In the Tula notices, for example, there are hazel, two types of euonymus - warty and European, forest honeysuckle, brittle buckthorn, wild rose and some others.
Different types of shrubs vary greatly in height.

Hazel bushes, for example, often reach a height of 5 - 6 m, and honeysuckle bushes are almost always shorter than human growth.

In a broad-leaved forest, the grass cover is usually well developed. Many plants have more or less large, wide leaf blades. Therefore, they are called broad oak grass.

Some of the grasses found in oak forests always grow as single specimens, never forming dense thickets. Others, on the other hand, can almost completely cover the soil over a large area. Such massive, dominant plants in the oak forests of Central Russia most often turn out to be common, hairy sedge and yellow zelenchuk.

Broad-leaved trees have broad and flat leaves - which are much less thick than their length and width, usually falling off once a year.

This group includes maples, beeches, ash trees, eucalyptus trees, and a variety of shrubs. In addition to the classification by the type of leaves, trees are divided according to the life of the leaves - deciduous and evergreen.

Deciduous trees have a clear change of deciduous cover: all the leaves on the tree lose their green color and fall off, for some time (in winter) the tree stands without leaves, then (in spring) new leaves grow from the buds.

Evergreen trees do not have a clear change of deciduous cover: foliage is on the tree at any time of the year, and the change of leaves occurs gradually, throughout the life of the tree.

In areas with long, cold winters, hardwood trees shed their leaves in the fall.

In the tropics, where the length of daylight hours varies slightly during the year, the leaves do not fall off for the winter.
Shedding leaves helps save energy as there is too little sunlight in winter for photosynthesis in the leaves.

In the fall, the trees go into a dormant state. The movement of water and nutrients through the vessels inside the trees stops, as a result the leaves dry up and fall off. However, by this time, the plant has already accumulated enough nutrients to ensure bud breakout and new leaves grow in the spring. The green pigment chlorophyll breaks down in autumn, and other pigments become clearly visible, which give the autumn leaves yellow, red and reddish colors.

Oak

The oak is the main forest-forming agent for deciduous forests in Europe.

English oak (Quergus robur) grows in the European part of Russia - one of the most durable and largest of our trees.

Nevertheless, in plantings, with the exception of parks, this plant is quite rare, although in a number of properties it has no equal. In particular, the pedunculate oak has the highest recreational resistance and is extremely drought tolerant.

In private plots, it is used in single plantings.

It tolerates moderate pruning, so you can form very beautiful tapeworms with a spherical, obovate and even tent-shaped crown shape.

Elm

In the forests of the non-chernozem zone, two species from the elm family naturally grow: smooth elm (Ulmus laevis) and c. rough (U. scabra). These are large trees that are part of the dominant layer of deciduous and coniferous-deciduous forests.

The use of these species for gardening purposes has been constrained in recent decades by the widespread disease, Dutch elm disease.

Common ash

Ash reaches a height of 30-40 m.

Its trunk is straight. The bark is light gray, darkening with age. The crown is very loose, delicate, letting in a lot of light. The root system is powerful, highly branched. Ash is very picky about the soil, but it tolerates salinity better than others. This is one of the main breeds of field protective breeding, it is photophilous, in youth it is more shade-tolerant, thermophilic and does not tolerate spring frosts, it grows almost throughout the European part of the Russian Federation, often in a mixture with other species: oak, hornbeam, maple, sometimes forms pure or almost clean plantings.

Inflorescences are paniculate, dense.
The flowers of these trees are usually dioecious, less often bisexual, but sometimes dioecious trees are present. Ash blooms in May before blooming leaves. Pollinated by the wind.
Fruits are single-seeded lionfish, collected in bunches, ripen in October-November and fall off in winter or early spring.

Forest beech (there is also an oriental beech) - a tree up to 40 meters high and up to one and a half meters in diameter with light gray bark and elliptical leaves. It occupies large areas in Western Europe, in our country it grows in the western regions of Ukraine, Belarus and the Kaliningrad region.

Oriental beech is widespread in the Caucasus at an altitude of 1000-1500 meters above sea level, in the Crimea - at a level of 700-1300 meters, forming a belt of beech forests.

The main value of beech is its fruit - nuts, which ripen in September - October. They contain up to 28 percent of fatty semi-drying oil, up to 30 percent of nitrogenous substances, starch, sugars, malic and citric acids, tannins, up to 150 mg% of tocopherols and a poisonous alkaloid phagin, which decomposes when nuts are fried, which as a result become harmless to humans ...

A coffee substitute is prepared from nuts, ground nuts in the form of flour are added to ordinary flour when baking various bakery products. Beech wood is very valuable and decorative.

Maple

Various types of maples are widespread in deciduous forests.

More often than others, Norway maple, or common maple, is a tree up to 20 meters tall, with gray bark and five-pasted large dark green leaves. Distributed in the European part of the country, mainly in the western and central parts, and in the Caucasus. Its leaves and shoots can be used medicinally. It was found that the leaves contain up to 268 mg% of ascorbic acid, alkaloids and tannins. An infusion or decoction of the leaves has a diuretic, choleretic, antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, wound healing, analgesic effect.

In folk herbal medicine, it was used for kidney stones, jaundice, as an antiemetic and tonic. Crushed fresh leaves were applied to the wounds to heal.

Oak and beech, elm, maple and ash are very valuable tree species, the wood of which is considered a high-quality building material, and the bark is used for household and medical needs.

07.05.2016 15:30

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Broad-leaved forests are located on the Russian Plain, occupying almost the entire territory up to the Urals. The wealth of these massifs is determined by the variety of tree and plant species growing here. Surprisingly, it is these forests that are most widespread in most regions of our country due to their adaptability to rapidly changing weather conditions and temperature conditions.

Only the broad-leaved forests of our country require a special climate for their full-fledged development and expansion of forests. They grow even in the south of the Far East, along the entire length of the climatic zone.

Certain tree species that can grow on the borders of various natural zones, the climate of which often changes very often, help to distinguish between different forest areas. For example, such a species is spruce. She seems to draw the line between mixed and deciduous forests.

Another way to tell the difference between forests is to study what types of trees grow in them. Broad-leaved forests are characterized by deciduous tree varieties, the leaves of which can fall off depending on the season and temperature. Leaves also participate in the processes of photosynthesis, convert carbon dioxide, present in nature, into oxygen, favorable for life.

Forest-steppe also represents a certain border between forests. In these areas, trees practically do not grow, and the soil, due to the presence of special nutrient components, is painted in dark colors and shades.

Features of broadleaf forests in Russia

Often, deciduous trees grow on the territory of deciduous forests. Other breeds are sometimes found. But if they are here in an insignificant amount and do not exceed the total volume of deciduous trees, this forest is not classified as a mixed type.

Here you can find gray forest soil, which provides trees with all the nutrients necessary for their life. The rest of the components of the trees are taken from their own leaves in the autumn-winter seasons. When the leaves turn yellow and fall off, the trunk and root system of the tree prepares to overwinter, "wait out" unfavorable times for its growth.

But if the trunk is protected by bark, then the root system is more vulnerable in this regard. After all, the soil cools down in winter due to the lack of sunlight. Then fallen leaves save the situation. They rot and nourish the roots and trunk of trees that are in a state of "sleep".

Such natural processes as leaf rotting are able to maintain a certain constant temperature in certain areas of the soil, so the tree:

• completely protected from cold weather,
• does not lose its ability to grow further,
• preserves nutrients in order to use them in the spring, when climatic conditions again become favorable for broad-leaved trees.

In the east of the most extended forest area, the heat supply is much higher than in the zone of mixed forests closest to it. Therefore, trees grow and develop fully here, much faster.

Rich vegetation of deciduous forests

Since the soils are rich in all the components necessary for the growth of trees and all kinds of plants, the vegetation of these places is quite diverse. After all, the period of its growth and development increases due to the temperate climate and low temperatures. However, in the spring, you can notice a decrease in humidity in some areas of deciduous forests. Therefore, if we look at this array from a bird's eye view, we can see that its integrity is slightly broken and in certain places "voids" are visible, not filled with trees. As mentioned above, there may be several reasons for such a natural phenomenon.

Recently, deciduous forests have significantly reduced the volume of their territories. This is because technological progress is developing at such a speed that forests simply do not have time to restore their massifs.

The forest needs help

Deciduous forests really need human help. No matter how paradoxical it sounds, but only he is able to reduce the destructive effect on nature.

• plant seedlings in those places where forests are interrupted for any reason,
• to ensure the protection of deciduous and other types of forests from encroachments by poachers and irresponsible entrepreneurs who mercilessly cut down large areas of this natural material,
• create all the conditions for buildings and cities to be at a certain distance from the forest.

All these conditions are not easy to comply with, since many of them are practically not controlled by the state. Industrial enterprises emit too large amounts of emissions into our atmosphere. Only forests can help with air purification. Therefore, their preservation is so important for the future of our planet.

Deciduous forests, like other woodlands, are the lungs of the Earth. Without forests, our planet could not exist in the form in which it functions and develops now.

All that is needed to maintain the ecological health of the planet is the protection of forests. This is not so difficult, considering that only in our country deciduous forests grow, which are practically unparalleled in the world along the length of their massifs. Since such wealth grows in one area, it just needs to be preserved.

Deciduous forests and industry

Surprisingly, these tracts are the main raw material in the timber industry. They are a versatile material for processing that is able to recover its resources.

The industry even uses production waste. That is, the secondary processing of already processed raw materials has been established in our country. At the same time, the volume of deforestation does not decrease. To remedy this situation, it is necessary to carry out a complete reorganization of the enterprises involved in this stage of work with wood processing.

Potential of deciduous forests

Due to the fact that in these forests there is an active biological cycle of all natural elements, the soil is constantly "working", renewing its natural potential.

In addition, thanks to such metamorphoses, deciduous forests are cleared of all kinds of pollutants that have settled on the leaves and branches of harmful chemical elements.

Thanks to the vital activity of all microorganisms, plants and animals present in a given territory, the composition of calcium in the soil is renewed, which is simply necessary for the growth of trees.

Thus, the following accumulates in the ground:

• fertilizers useful for trees,
• mineral substances that ensure the expansion of the boundaries of the forest,
• humus, which maintains all chemical processes and reactions in the soil at an optimal level for the life of trees.

Sometimes in the deciduous forests of our country, in certain climatic zones, you can find black soil. Thanks to him, trees grow much faster, and the flora and fauna of these areas is very rich and diverse.

Animals in such forests live mainly herbivores. After all, the leaves of some trees are the main "dish" for many ungulates. Deer and roe deer can be found in broadleaf forests. For such places, the wild boar is very adapted, which feeds on oak acorns and other fruits that fall at the time of one of the stages of the tree's growth.

In fact, the fauna of these forests is quite rich, but of the same type due to the peculiarities of the climate. During winter periods of time, some birds fly south due to the lack of food necessary for their life, and animals hibernate or look for alternative sources of food.

On the Russian plain, there is a certain anthropogenic transformation to which deciduous forests have undergone. The oak forests, which for several centuries adorned most of the territory of the plain up to the Urals, have practically disappeared.

Most of the soil on which it grew was cultivated and plowed up. Frequent use of useful various mineral fertilizers and other nutrients for trees soils have reduced their natural potential. It will take decades to restore its resources and expand its broadleaf forests.

And all that a person had to do was to use the riches already existing in nature reasonably, not to cut down forests thoughtlessly, as if they were eternal, but there are an unlimited amount of such natural resources on Earth.

What has already been done cannot be changed, it remains only to try to correct this tendency towards the reduction of deciduous forests in our country. To do this, it is not necessary to plant new trees on plots of land already used for industrial purposes. You can act differently and preserve the forest tracts that are still available.

Deciduous forests nowadays represent a unique ecosystem capable of self-healing. It is possible to develop natural resources on its territory only if it is organized correctly.

To do this, experts determine which of the trees can be classified as suitable for cutting, and which cannot be touched due to their age and ability to create new trees.

Then the trees are marked, and the process of felling and harvesting wood begins. It must be carried out at a certain time of the year, so as not to disrupt the natural processes taking place in the trees. After felling, a break is taken and a broad-leaved forest is monitored. If this area is gradually being restored, then you can proceed to selective felling on another. Complete deforestation is prohibited due to the fact that young trees are sometimes cut down along with trees suitable for processing. Due to their potential, the territories of deciduous forests are expanding.

If you give nature time, then the layer of humus in the soil will return to its previous level. After all, the rate of growth of broad-leaved trees and their further development depends on this. Therefore, the protection of forests is now the main issue on which not only the development of the Russian forest industry depends, but also the health of our planet as a whole.