Types of trees in the forest. The flora of the Moscow region

Biological types of trees are subdivided according to the type of leaves into conifers and deciduous, which are also called broadleaf.

Tree types

Deciduous trees have flat leaves that fall in autumn. These trees are in bloom and can bear fruit.
Conifers have hard needle-shaped leaves - needles. Cones or juniper berries grow on them.
According to the lifespan of the leaves, there are evergreen and deciduous trees.

Have deciduous trees in the fall the leaves fall off, in the winter there are no leaves on the trees, and in the spring new leaves emerge from the buds. Evergreen trees do not have a specific leaf change time. Old leaves change to new ones gradually throughout the life of the tree.

Deciduous trees: names, description

Deciduous plants appeared on our planet after conifers.
Deciduous trees have leaves of different shapes and sizes, the color of which changes in autumn. Gradually, by winter, the leaves fall from the trees.
Species deciduous trees a lot, for example:

• Oak
• Beech
• Birch
• Elm
• Hornbeam
• Willow
• Chestnut
• Alder
• Linden
• Poplar
• Ash
• Acacia

A quarter of European forests are made up of deciduous trees.

There are more deciduous trees in the Northern Hemisphere than in the Southern Hemisphere. On the territory of our country, oak and beech are the most common deciduous trees.
Common oak: diameter - up to 1.5 m, height - up to 40 m, life expectancy - up to one and a half century.

Oak leaves are wider at the top than at the bottom.
Beech: trunk diameter - 2 m, height - up to 30 m, lifespan exceeds the threshold of 400 years. Beech leaves have a more strict shape (oval), in contrast to oak leaves.

Conifers: names

Some will be surprised to learn that the needle (the same "needle") is a leaf, just modified.
Let's note the main types conifers:

• Larch
• Thuja (western, eastern)
• Scots pine
• Fir
• Spruce (gray, European)
• Cedar
• Yew
• Juniper

Spruce ( evergreen tree): trunk diameter reaches - 1.5 m, height - up to 40 m, life span - up to 500 (rarely up to 600) years.

Needles: length - up to 3 cm, width - up to 1.5 mm. Norway spruce grows in Siberia, Central and Northern Europe.

Larch is very common in our country, as well as throughout the earth.

Despite the name, larch is coniferous but not an evergreen tree. Larch needles (soft to the touch) fall off once a year before winter.

The abundance of forests with Russia can only be compared with Brazil and Canada. The most famous tree species middle lane Russia has become favorite objects of folklore, songs are sung about them, poems are composed.

Coniferous trees of Russia

Conifers are the most numerous types of trees in Russia, photos and names of which can be found in catalogs or found on the Internet.

Pine

Scots pine has an extensive habitat:

• Siberia;
• Ural;
• European part of Russia.

It can be from 20 to 40 meters high. The pine has a slender trunk covered with golden or reddish-brown bark. In young pines, the crown is conical, and in old age it becomes rounded-wide. In freely growing pines, the crown is lowered low, and in those crowding in the forest, it is raised much higher. Medicine takes unopened spring buds from pine, young needles and resin - sap. There are many in these materials:

• essential oils;
• tannins;
• resins;
• vitamins;
• starch.

Pine oil exhibits anti-inflammatory, aseptic, general stimulating properties.

It also grows almost throughout the entire territory of our country and is a forest-forming species. The average height of spruce is 30-35 m, but there are also specimens 50 m high and a meter in diameter at the butt. The tree grows all its life, its age can reach 300 years. This evergreen coniferous breed has a shallow root system. Decorative spruce often planted on the site along the fence.

European larch

The most widespread tree in Russia. Reaches 1 meter in diameter and 50 m in height with a life expectancy of 300-400 years. Larch has a conical crown, bright green, flattened, soft annual needles. Small teardrop-shaped cones. Resinous, strong, resilient larch wood has outstanding resistance to decay.

Common fir

It grows mainly in the European part of the country, but it is also found in the Caucasus and Siberia. A meter thick fir trunk rises by 40-50 m. The fir has a solid age - 500-700 years. Pyramidal crown, light gray, sometimes with a reddish tint of the bark. The flat needles are dark green on top, and have white stripes on the bottom. Begins to bear fruit at the age of 25-30.

Cedar pine (Siberian cedar)

The diameter of the cedar trunk reaches a thickness of 1.5 m at a height of 30-44 m, but it lives up to 500 years. The tree has a dense multi-peaked crown with soft dark green with a bluish bloom, long (6-14 cm) needles. The cross-section of the needles is triangular, and they grow in bunches of 5 pieces. Ripe large cones are egg-shaped, at first they are purple, then they turn brown, they reach 13 cm in length and 5-8 cm in diameter. In each cone cedar pine hiding 30-150 seeds - everyone's favorite pine nuts.

Video about tree species in Russia

Common juniper

It is also common throughout Russia. This is an evergreen shrub or multi-stemmed tree 2-6 m high, with dense multi-peaked needles. Pointed needles are grouped in three in whorls, pressed against the trunk and sticking out to the sides. The juniper has fruits in the form of cones-berries, initially they are green, in the second season - blue-black, with a bluish bloom and filled with resinous pulp. They are used:

• as a seasoning in cooking;
• for the manufacture of tinctures;
• fruits and needles are used for smoking meat and fish.

Deciduous tree species in Russia

The other half of the tree species in Russia is deciduous.

This powerful long-liver can grow up to 50 m if it grows in the forest. The oak has a slender trunk with knots only at high heights. If it grows in an open place, then it has a wide short trunk and a low-set spreading crown. Elliptical fruits are acorns, they can be planted and germinated at home. Oak usually lives for 300-400 years, but it can live up to 2000 years.

Common birch

This is one of the symbols of Russia, which grows almost everywhere on its territory. The trunk at a height of 25-30 m can have a thickness of up to 80 cm. Young birches have brownish-brown bark, but after 8-10 years it turns white. Life expectancy is 120 years. ethnoscience uses birch buds and leaves.

Small-leaved linden (heart-shaped)

Distributed in the western part of the country up to the Urals. This tree is 20-40 m high and has a luxurious tent-like crown. The dark bark of old trees becomes furrowed. Linden blossom is popular as a flavoring agent in the production of alcoholic beverages, in perfumery, and serves as a substitute for tea.

Common aspen (trembling poplar)

Has an extensive habitat in places with cold and temperate climate all around Russia. The trunk is columnar, up to 35 m high and a meter in diameter. The lifespan is 80-90 years, sometimes up to 150 years. Young trees have smooth, greenish-gray or light green bark, but with age it darkens and cracks. In April, bees collect pollen and glue from aspen catkins, which turns into propolis.

Maple Norway (plane-shaped)

it beautiful tree with a dense spherical crown, it grows up to 12-28 m. The gray-brown smooth bark of young trees cracks and darkens with age.

It is a deciduous breed that can grow up to 40 m with a 2 m thick trunk, but some of its subspecies are shrubs. Crohn can have different shapes:

• wide-cylindrical with a rounded top;
• compact spherical.

On average, an elm lives 80-120 years, but sometimes it lives up to 400 years.

European beech (forest)

This slender columnar tree grows up to 30-50 m, has a diameter of 1.5 m in the butt (for centenarians - up to 3 m). The crown is wide-cylindrical or ovoid. Beech lives for 500 years, but sometimes almost twice as long. Its nuts can be eaten roasted or raw, but in large quantities they are harmful.

Common hornbeam (European)

Another representative included in rare species trees in Russia, the hornbeam grows only 7-12 m, less often up to 25 m. The ribbed trunk is not thick (40 cm), framed by a dense cylindrical crown. Young hornbeams have a silvery-gray bark, which gradually cracks deeply. Hornbeam wood is used to make:

• musical instruments;
• tool handles;
• veneer;
• parquet.

What Russian trees do you most often see around you? Tell us about it in

(as amended on 05/29/2014)

Character vegetation The Moscow region is determined by climate, relief and soils, water regime and some other factors.

The Moscow region is located within the forest belt (the extreme south of the taiga zone, the zone of coniferous-broad-leaved and broad-leaved forests and the forest-steppe zone). According to the government of the Moscow region, as of January 1, 2013, forests occupy almost half (more than 44%) of the territory of the Moscow region; in some areas (mainly in the west, north of the region and in the extreme east, where large forest tracts have been preserved), forest cover exceeds 80%, on the Moskvoretsko-Oka plain it generally does not exceed 40%, in the southern Zaoksky regions it does not even reach 20%. Most of the region's territory is included in the mixed forest zone. On the territory of the Upper Volga and Meshchera lowlands, there are many vast swamps and peat bogs. Meadows (floodplain and dry land) in the Moscow region occupy no more than 3% of the territory. They arose mainly in the place of forests.

According to the nature of vegetation, the territory of the Moscow region can be conditionally divided into several areas:

Spruce forests - located in the north, north-west, bedrock - spruce with an admixture of broad-leaved species;
- spruce-broad-leaved mixed forests - occupy the central and western part of the region, the upper reaches of the Moskva River;
- deciduous forests - located south of Moscow, in the south and southeast of the region to the border with Meshchera;
- pine forests and swamps - these are the southeastern and eastern parts of the region, the Meshchera lowland, the northern end of the Moscow region, the bedrock is pine;
- forest-steppe - located on the southernmost edge of the region, almost not occupied by forests.

So, let's take a closer look.

In the very north of the Moscow region (on the territory of the Upper Volga Lowland) and partly in the northwestern and western parts of the region (the territory of Mozhaisky, Shakhovsky and Lotoshinsky districts), southern taiga coniferous forests are most common. These are mainly spruce forests with thickets of common hazel (hazelnut); with warty euonymus in the undergrowth and not big amount small-leaved and broad-leaved species in the forest stand. Few pure spruce forests remain in the Moscow region. Swamps and peat bogs are widespread on the territory of the Upper Volga Lowland.

The central, western and eastern parts of the region are occupied by indigenous coniferous-deciduous forests. They do not form a continuous belt; most fully preserved on the slopes of the Klinsko-Dmitrovskaya ridge of the Smolensk-Moscow Upland. Norway spruce and ordinary pine feel good here. Along the tops of the hills and on warm, well-drained slopes, they settled: small-leaved linden, pedunculate oak, elms (smooth and rough), Norway maple. In addition, there are bird cherry, forest apple, common pear and blackthorn. In such forests, as an admixture grow: aspen, gray alder, birch (warty and fluffy), and in more damp places, swampy lowlands - alder forests of their black alder, birch-aspen undergrowth or thickets of different types willows and buckthorns. Along the deep river valleys, the so-called buga stretches in a narrow strip - riverbed thickets of gray alder, rakita, willow and bird cherry, mixed with willows and intertwined with garlands of hops. In the coniferous-deciduous forests in the undergrowth, common hazel, euonymus (European and warty), mountain ash, buckthorn, viburnum, honeysuckle, and several types of currants dominate; wolf bast is also found here, and in thickets of black alder - black currant. For this zone, grasses of both conifers (canyon, oxalis, wintergreens) and deciduous forests (driftwood, hoof, zelenchuk, raven's eye, hairy sedge) are typical.

The zone of deciduous forests includes the territories located south of the Oka, with the exception of the southern part of the Serebryano-Prudsky district, which belongs to the forest-steppe zone. Along the low-lying right bank of the Moskva River, the zone of deciduous forests extends far to the north, almost to the borders of the city of Moscow. To the south of the Oka, oak forests are scattered in small patches on well-drained valley slopes and along steep cliffs. The main tree species of the zone, in addition to oak, are linden, Norway maples, Tartar and field maples, ash and two types of elm, in the dense underbrush - hazel, European and warty spindle trees, honeysuckle, buckthorn buckthorn, viburnum, wild rose and other shrubs. In the lower tiers of deciduous forests, more often than in forests of other types, there are forest apple, common pear, buckthorn laxative and blackthorn. The herb cover is varied - here grow willow, zelenchuk, hairy sedge, ferns, woody anemone, lily of the valley, Kashubian buttercup, goose onions, lungwort, hoofed grass, spring tree grass, fragrant woodruff, forest sedge, giant fescue, broad oak forest, bluegrass. In the floodplains of the rivers, there are black alder forests, as well as oak forests with an admixture of elm. In the Oka valley south of Kolomna there are floodplain meadows.

The Moskvoretsko-Oka Upland is a transitional zone. Secondary small-leaved forests are common for it, while coniferous-deciduous, broad-leaved forests of oak, linden, maple (in the interfluve of Pakhra and Severka) are indigenous. There are also large tracts of spruce forests, such as, for example, in the upper reaches of the Lopasnya River. In the Oka valley between Serpukhov and Kolomna, on the elevated left bank, there are pine forests of the steppe type. In the adjacent part of the Moskvoretsko-Oka Plain along the Moscow River, in the Zaoksky districts, as well as to the north of the Klinsko-Dmitrovskaya ridge large areas set aside for agricultural land.

The easternmost part of the region - indigenous Meshchera forests - consists mainly of southern taiga pine and pine-spruce massifs. These are green moss pine forests with a ground cover of blueberries and lingonberries; in waterlogged areas - long-moss pine forests and sphagnoviks. There are few clean spruce forests, and they occupy very small areas. Typical for Meshchera are bora with a complex species composition with a significant admixture of small-leaved and, less often, broad-leaved species; such forests tend to have rich undergrowth and dense grass cover. In addition, within the Meshchera, in waterlogged areas, there are massifs of primary small-leaved forests of gray and black alder and willow. In Meshchera near Moscow, vast swamps and peat bogs are very common - in the Shatursky and Lukhovitsky districts. And there are almost no natural floodplain meadows left.

The extreme south of the region (Serebryanoprudskiy region and partly Serpukhovskiy region) are located in the forest-steppe zone; but all areas of the steppe on the watersheds have been plowed up, they are practically not preserved. Small areas Steppe meadows and meadow steppes are protected here in several reserves on the slopes of the Polosnya, Sturgeon and other rivers. Linden and oak groves are occasionally found within the forest-steppe zone.

The floodplain meadows of the Moscow region are of great economic importance: the main tracts of hayfields and pastures are concentrated here. The main plants: canary grass, creeping wheatgrass, awnless bonfire, bent grass, fescue, bluegrass, reed grass, sycamore plant, cornflower meadow, St.

Dry meadows are common on watershed surfaces and slopes. The low sparse grass cover is formed by a large number of species. The most characteristic species are common bent, red fescue, meadow bluegrass, sweet spikelet, very abundant forbs and legumes.

It is important to take into account that since the 18th century, the forests of the present-day Moscow region have undergone intensive felling. This led to a change in the ratio of tree species: coniferous (mainly spruce), mixed and broad-leaved forests in many places were replaced by small-leaved (birch and aspen). The approximate ratio of the main forest-forming species in the forests of the Moscow Region is as follows (without black alder): birch - 35%, spruce - 27%, pine - 23%, aspen - 9%, oak - 2%, linden - 0.3%. In our time, felling is almost not carried out, since many forests are of water and nature conservation value. Reforestation is being carried out in clearings, especially near Moscow.

The main aboriginal species of trees and shrubs of the Moscow region: Scots pine, Norway spruce, common juniper, willow (about 17 species), aspen, black poplar, drooping birch, downy birch, squat birch, dwarf birch, common hazel, black alder, common oak , smooth elm, bare elm, forest apple, early apple, common pear, mountain ash, Central Russian cotoneaster, cinnamon rose, bird cherry, blackthorn, Russian broom, warty euonymus, plane maple, field maple, buckthorn, brittle laxative, linden , daffodil common, blood-red turf, white turf, common ash. In the Moscow region, there are about 2 thousand species of mushrooms, of which about 900 are cap types. Almost half of them are edible. Several hundred species of lichens grow in the Moscow region (for reference: in Moscow - about 90). Lichens are very sensitive to pollution and therefore can serve good indicators the state of the environment. In the Moscow region, there are about 1300 species of aboriginal ferns, snakes, lycopods, half-ears, horsetails. Please note: the number of native plant species in the Moscow region is decreasing, but representatives of other flora are increasingly spreading - imported species, for example, American maple, larch (2 species), hawthorn, ash-leaved maple, common lilac and others. species that came from culture have also settled in large territories - Sosnovsky's hogweed, common catchment, glandular touch-sensitive, giant goldenrod and others.

Some plant species are listed in the Red Book of Russia (Water walnut, Lady's slipper and others).
Information about the plants included in Red Book of the Moscow Region, you can get it .