Favourite tree and favourite forest type

[~Elizabeth~]

White lilac tree and maple tree. I don't have a favorite forest. I've never been to a forest.

[rothaer]

Oak forest ofcourse, given my name

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I somewhere in my proximity in Northern Germany encountered this very unusual forest at a remote place. It's made up abt. 95% of younger oaks and the whole ground as far as you can look in all directions is covered by blueberry bushes. It has a strange vibe.

[Mr.G]

I love the Eastern Hemlock tree (not to be confused with poison Hemlock).




These tall (non-toxic ), majestic, evergreens, grow in the natural ravines of the Appalachian Mountains. I have very fond memories from my childhood of the remarkably cool and shaded Hemlock ravines, they were a great respite from the humid, hot, and buggy weather on a mid-summer day. Almost like Heaven, really. Descending into a Hemlock ravine, it felt like the temperature suddenly dropped 10 degrees, the ground turned to a bed of soft needles below your feet, most undergrowth, gone, just open forest floor.

Unfortunately, these trees are being decimated by the invasive Wooly Adelgid, an aphid-like insect native to Asia.




In my lifetime I have seen a particularly beautiful ravine transformed so much as to be unrecognizable. As the Adelgids slowly starve the trees, the branches beginning weakening and falling off, from the bottom of the tree up. As the branches die off, and the needles thin out, sunlight infiltrates the canopy, gradually transforming the forest floor to vines, brambles, weeds, and successional growth. The magic of the ravines is being lost.

Here is a fairly recent picture I took, you should barely be able to see sky thru those trees:




Here I took a picture looking down into the ravine from higher up on the trail:

[Sheppey]

Cornish Elm :

[rothaer]

I like birches for their spiritual and cultural importance, for ex. in Celtic culture or nowadays for ex. in Northern Europe.

I really like artifacts, objects made with birch, like engraved boxes. I have several from Belarus and Russia. (...)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birch_...lavonic_script

[Laly]

Very interesting. I was not aware of any notable difference between sessile oak and pedonculate oak.

After you jumped over my favourite yew tree: After it's very toxic for horses and very suitable for longbows it was exploited and removed in most parts of Europe. Also, it has problems with regeneration after the wolf is essentially extincted and the deer population (that loves eating yew) became about the tenfold in Europe compared to the natural population. The wild Central European forests must once have been pretty different looking. Here a pic with the athmosphere of this indigenous, mysterious and once holy tree:

Dear rothaer,

Thank you so much for this very interesting insight! It is a pity that some trees, such as the majestic yew, have greatly disappeared. It is unfortunately expected that our forests will change of aspect because of climatic changes.

[Laly]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birch_...lavonic_script

Fascinating! Thank you for sharing.

[Ellethwyn]

I will have to list my top 3 favorite trees, because I can't choose just one.

Sequioa/Redwood


Fig


and Birch.



My favorite forests that i've been to are the old growth Redwood forests of northern California and the temperate rain forests of NW Washington.

[Voskos]

The famous Byzantine tree, often inhaled by some of the Greek members here to get high and feel like Roman shamans instead of modern Greek plebs.

[HectorOfTroy]

Big palm trees