elm, basswood, linden, walnut, or
Deciduous forest
(Plants)
Plant Adaptations
Summer -- Their broad leaves capture
energy from the sun and convert it to
food by photosynthesis. Some of the
food is used for growth and some is
stored in the roots for next spring.
Autumn -- green chlorophyll in the
leaves begins to decompose, revealing
brilliant oranges, yellows, and reds.
Actually, these colors were present in
the leaves all year long, but had been
hidden by the green pigment of the
chlorophyll.
Winter -- deciduous trees and plants
become dormant. They loose their
leaves and seal the places where leaves
were attached with a protective covering
called a leaf scar. If they kept their
leaves, the water in the leaves would
freeze into ice, damaging the leaves and
leaving the plant vulnerable to bacteria
or fungi. Plants also make a
concentrated sugar solution to stop water
from freezing in their stems.
Spring -- signal to the trees to grow new
leaves and begin photosynthesis again.
Layers of the Temperate Deciduous
Forest: There are five layers (also called
zones or strata) in the temperate
deciduous forest. These include the:
• Tree stratum, the tallest layer,
60 -100 feet high, with large oak,
maple, beech, chestnut, hickory,
sweet gum trees.
• Small tree or sapling layer -
short tree species and young
trees.
• Shrub layer - shrubs like
rhododendrons, azaleas,
mountain laurels, and
huckleberries.
• Herb layer - short plants.
• Ground layer - lichens,
clubmosses, and true mosses.
Oak Trees - the oak trees in Sherwood
Forest in Great Britain are 500 years old!
Oaks can grow to a height of 120
feet! Acorns are the fruits of the oak
tree. Oak trees produce lots of acorns
every 3-4 years. Squirrels like eating
them and they bury some. Seedlings
grow from the buried acorns the
following spring.
Eglantine - a very hardy shrub that can
get quite big, possibly up to 10 feet tall.
It blooms just once, with single pink
flowers about 1.5 to 2 inches across. The
foliage emits a nice apple fragrance,
especially when rubbed. In the fall,
Eglantine puts on a nice show with lots
of bright red leaves.

Birch Trees - can grow to a height of 40
feet. The bark of the tree peels as it ages.
Birches are typical "pioneer" trees, able
to invade and colonise bare land
successfully. Birch trees are wind
pollinated
Flowering Dogwood - the dogwood
flowers in early spring. It can grow to a
height of 20-30 feet. It's leaves are
typically 6-12 inches in diameter and
turn brilliant red, orange and scarlet in
the fall of the year. It bears clusters of
red fruit in the winter.
Red Maple Tree - this tree grows
everywhere from the organic muck of
shallow fresh water swamps to the rocky
quartzite slopes of the Appalachian
Mountains. This tree's small, numerous
red flowers bloom in the early spring,
before the leaves come out. The leaves
are 3 or 5 lobed, red stemmed, and vary
from 2 to 5 inches long.
Eastern Hemlock - hemlocks in the
northeast are being attacked by the
Wolly adelgid, an Asian sap-sucking
insect that is usually fatal to the trees,
especially those individuals that are
growing in shady onditions. The
hemlock is a conifer with short needles,
usually less than an inch long, that grow
in two rows on each side of the branch.
Tulip Tree - the Tulip tree is the tallest
hardwood in the eastern forests of North
America. Often between 100 and 200
feet in height at maturity, this tree grows
rapidly, sometimes over 6 feet a year! It
is actually in the magnolia family, and it
bears large, bee-pollinated tulip-like 6
petal yellow, green, and orange flowers
in the late spring. Tuliptree leaves are 4-
6 inches long, about as wide, 4 lobed,
and bilaterally symmetric. They are the
only 4 lobed symmetric leaves in the
eastern forests.
Witch Hazel - Witch hazel is a tree with
branches that are very flexible -- so
springy, in fact, that American Indians
used them to make bows! Despite its
name, witch hazel has nothing to do with
witchcraft. In medieval English, witch
was spelled wych, and it meant flexible.
Sugar Maple Trees - in the fall, the sugar
maple becomes the most colorful tree in
the forest. The fall foliage is usually
orange or red, and the whole tree
generally turns at once. This is the tree
whose sap is used to produce maple
syrup.

http://www.mbgnet.net/sets/temp/whats.
htm
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/biom
es/tempdecid/tempdecid.shtml
http://inchinapinch.com/hab_pgs/terres/d
_forest/plants.htm

Beech Trees - the beech casts some of

the darkest shade in the forest, and very
few other trees grow under it. The beech
tree is most easily identified by its bark.
The bark is light colored, and very
smooth, as this tree never develops
furrows. The leaves are fairly small,
toothed, with veins terminating in teeth.
There are no lobes on the leaves, which
turn yellow in the fall. The nuts, which
fall before the leaves turn, are small,
triangular shaped, and edible!