Of all the landscape zones, the largest part in the territory of our country is taiga. Thousands of kilometers stretch gloomy forests of evergreen conifers. Only the shade-tolerant taiga tree is able to carry an insufficient amount of light and heat, which is so characteristic of this zone.
Features of taiga plants
Coniferous trees form the basis of taiga vegetation. They are most resistant to harsh climates, characterized by short summers and long frosty winters. The soil freezes deep enough, not having time to warm up over the summer period, therefore, permafrost is often located under the upper layer. Coniferous forest stretches endlessly through the lowlands, swamps, hillocks and hills. Poor, infertile soils are covered with a continuous carpet of moss. Under the dense crowns of trees almost never penetrate the sun's rays, so neither shrubs, nor grass under this canopy almost never grow.
Shade-tolerant taiga tree
A feature of coniferous forests are soils that are not enriched with nutrients and humus. The reason is that conifers do not needles so often, and this is reflected in soil formation. Lack of wind and lack of sunlight under the crowns of trees create increased humidity. Moss growing well under such conditions is able to absorb a large amount of water, which leads to waterlogging of the terrain and the accumulation of peat.
It is believed that the most shade-tolerant tree of the taiga is a spruce. But also the excess of fir and cedar is not very well tolerated. Direct sunlight is simply disastrous for them. These plants belong to aggressive species, because even in "infancy" due to their shade tolerance they are able to displace other trees.
Siberian spruce
It is a graceful tree shaped like a regular, refined cone with a sharp tip. Spruce grows beautifully under the dense crowns of other trees. Short, single needles are very densely arranged and can live up to 7 years. Thanks to them, the branches of spruce practically do not let in the sun's rays. Very demanding on soil moisture and its composition is a shade-tolerant taiga tree. Spruce will not grow on dry and poor in composition soil. A feature of these trees is their high sensitivity to frost, which occurs in late spring, after the Christmas tree has time to release young shoots. They are easily damaged by frost and dry out.
In the spruce forest there are almost no other tree species that cannot develop as a result of strong shading. At the same time, the spruce is kept well. True, the trees grow low, resembling an umbrella, their crown is loose, with thin branches, on which there are rare short needles. With a lack of sunlight, organic substances are practically not produced by a tree, which does not allow wood to develop. It is difficult to determine the age of such a plant. A herringbone that is shorter than a person’s height can be 50 or even 70 years old. This shade-tolerant taiga tree, 3 letters from the name of which every child knows, is considered one of the most common plants in our forests.
Cedar
This is a mighty tree, sometimes reaching up to 40 meters in height and having a spreading crown with several peaks. The branches are covered with long, gathered in bundles of 5 pieces of dark green needles.
The cedar is famous for its cones, which usually grow in the very top of the crown. A mature tree can yield up to 1,500 cones per season. Pine nuts are a real treat for many forest residents. Both small rodents and large animals, such as, for example, a
brown bear, feed on them
. To create reliable shelters, many animals use the powerful roots that this shade-tolerant taiga tree has. The burrow, dug by foxes, minks, badgers, under old leafy cedars, you can find a huge number. The disadvantage of this tree is only that the fruiting period begins only by 40-50 years. To find fruiting trees, the inhabitants of the taiga have to make quite large migrations.
Other numerous types of trees growing in the taiga are more photophilous plants. Of these, only fir can be distinguished as another shade-tolerant taiga tree. Narrow-leaved goof, used in the non-chernozem soil afforestation afforestation, and other shrubs, birches, aspen, larch and pine known to all - they all prefer well-lit sunny areas.