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What Items Are in a Coniferous Forest?

Northern coniferous forests are found in Canada, the northwestern United States and across the north of Europe and Asia. Such forests cover approximately seventeen billion square miles of the planet. While many animals make their homes in this biome, it is characterized by its plant life; in fact, the word "coniferous" is derived from the cone-bearing trees that make up much of the flora.

Coniferous Trees
- These forests are marked by the dominance of cone-bearing trees. Pines are thick-barked, fire-resistant trees with buds protected by dense needle clusters. Some pine tree cones actually depend on fire to release their seeds; fortunately, the dry needles these trees shed provide a regular supply of fuel for such fires. Spruces are in the same family as pines, bearing more prickly needles, scaly bark and cones that hang suspended from the branches. Other conifers found in this biome include firs and cedars.
Bushes and Shrubs
- Below the canopy of the coniferous forest is a layer of shrubbery. Examples include the coniferous saskatoon shrub that blooms in spring with white flowers that develop into round, purple-black berries by the summer. It may grow up to five meters tall. Salal is another coniferous shrub, as small as 20 cm in height to several meters tall, with hanging rows of white-pink blossoms. Its deep purple berries provide sustenance to mammals, birds and insects of the forest. Thicket-forming thimbleberry can reach two feet in height and is a common sight in coniferous forests, possibly blooming with wrinkled white flowers or covered with fruit that resembles raspberries.
Lakes and Bogs
- Lakes cover a notable portion of coniferous forests around the world. As time passes, these lakes fill with other matter present in the ecosystem -- particularly minerals and organic matter from the many forest organisms -- to create bogs. Development of these systems occurs such that plants grow in the shallow waters of such bogs that catch soil and more organic matter; this formation of earth eventually grows grasses, shrubs and even trees of its own.
Other
- Coniferous forests have soils leaning towards the acidic side, known as podzols, and a layer of compacted humus, formerly loose organic matter, called mor. These forest soils are light in color and have low levels of mineral content and organic material, but the presence of fungi is reasonable compensation. The soil in coniferous forests, due to its nature, generally does not provide a home for such life forms as earthworms and other invertebrates. Above the soil is generally a covering of mosses, lichens, such low-growing, ground-covering plants as liverworts and occasional flowering plants.

Nature