The Different Layers of Foliage in the Black Forest

Canopy

• Towering spruce, fir and pine trees form the canopy, or top layer of foliage, in the Black Forest. Maple, birch, oak, lime and mulberry trees line slopes of gorges that face the sun while fruit orchards and vineyards dot the landscape throughout the Black Forest. The fir, spruce, beech and maple trees that provide the layer of foliage that can be seen from miles away provide homes for many of the plants and animals that make up the forest's floor.

Understory

• Smaller trees and shrubs make up the understory of the Black Forest. Woody shrubs, climbers and small trees in the Oleaceae family such as European privet and olives are mixed with the brown or reddish leaves and yellow, pink or purple flowers of shrubs that are members of the broomrape family. Berry bushes are abundant and lichens grow on the lower parts of the beech and spruce trees.

Wildflowers

• Many species of plants that have become extinct elsewhere are found on the floor of the Black Forest, including herbs and flowers. According to Black Forest Info, more than 30 kinds of orchids are found in the Wutach Gorge region, and many alpine flowers grow throughout the Black Forest, including edelweiss, gentian, chamomile, alpenrose and cornflowers. Other flowers and herbs that grow in the Black Forest are daisies, thyme, sage, basil, bugloss, forget-me-nots, houndstongue, primroses, dog violets, wild strawberries, buttercups, cranes bill geranium, borage and chest-high laurel.

Grasses and Ferns

• The floor of the Black Forest is also home to an assortment of grasses, mosses and ferns. Grasses such as mondo grass thrive with lady fern that spreads in the gaps under shrubs and trees. Some areas contain asparagus, river, autumn and foxtail ferns that reproduce by spores rather than seeds. Moss grows at the base of the evergreen and beech trees that make up much of the Black Forest canopy.