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Temperate Rain Forests
From Grolier's The New Book of Knowledge
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Temperate rain forests occur at higher latitudes than do tropical rain forests—usually in wet coastal areas. The world's largest temperate rain forests grow along a 1,200-mile (1,930-kilometer) stretch of the Pacific coast of North America, from Oregon to Alaska.
Other temperate rain forests are also found on the southeast coast of Chile; in Australia and New Zealand; and in some coastal areas of Norway, Japan, and Great Britain.
The timber from temperate rain forests is considered the most valuable in the world. Many of the temperate trees grow taller than do trees in the tropical rain forest, although there are many fewer species. In temperate rain forests in the Northern Hemisphere, conifers
(trees that produce cones) such as redwoods and Sitka spruces are often the dominant trees. The redwoods, Sequoia sempervirens, grow as tall as 340 feet (103 meters), while the Sitka spruces grow up to 180 feet (55 meters) high. In the Southern Hemisphere, such evergreens as the eucalyptus, Araucaria, and Nothofagus (Antarctic false beech) are common.
Devera Pine
Copyright © 2002 Grolier Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.
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