Nobody can say with certainty how many different species of deciduous trees there are worldwide: in the northern hemisphere alone there are several hundred different ones. The greatest diversity is found in the tropical and subtropical rain forests, where many tree species are still awaiting discovery.
There are over 60 different deciduous tree families
the essentials in brief
- Botanical classification: flowering plant
- Families: over 60 different ones
- Leaves: both deciduous and evergreen, very different shapes
- Flowers: unisexual or bisexual, pollination by wind or insects
- Flowering time: mostly in spring between April and June
- Fruits: both single and aggregate fruits as well as flying fruits
- Growth form: one or more trunks, with short or long trunks
- Growth height: smaller deciduous trees between eight and ten meters, many German forest trees around 50 meters, American coast redwood up to 110 meters
- Lifespan: very different, birch and ash only about 120 years, many typical forest trees several hundred to even 1000 years, coast redwood several thousand years
- Occurrence and Distribution: Deciduous trees grow almost everywhere, except for Antarctica, Arctic, dry deserts
What is the difference between deciduous trees and conifers?
The most obvious difference between deciduous and coniferous trees is in the shape of their leaves: coniferous trees develop needle-shaped foliage, while deciduous trees have leaves that are more or less broad and have leaf veins running through them. However, no distinction can be made between deciduous deciduous trees and evergreen conifers, as there are also deciduous evergreen trees and needle-shed conifers. Instead, however, the two groups can be divided by the shape and type of their fruit, since the seeds of deciduous trees are always encased in a fruit. For this reason, deciduous trees belong to the flowering plants, while conifers belong to the naked plants. Incidentally, conifers are much older in terms of evolutionary history: they have been around since the end of the coal age. Deciduous trees, on the other hand, only appeared about a hundred million years later.
Which deciduous trees are deciduous and which are evergreen?
Deciduous, d. H. deciduous native deciduous trees:
- Maple (Acer)
- Birch (Betula)
- Beech (Fagus)
- Hornbeam (Carpinus)
- Oak (Quercus)
- Alder (Alnus)
- Ash (Fraxinus)
- Whiteberries such as service tree and mountain ash (Sorbus)
- Poplar (Populus)
- Horse Chestnut (Aesculus)
- Elm (Ulmus)
- Willow (Salix)
- Linden (Tilia)
- Fruit trees (Malus, Prunus etc.)
Evergreen, native deciduous trees (i.e. non-deciduous)
- European holly (Ilex aquifolium)
- Common boxwood (Buxus sempervirens)
- Laurel (Laurus nobilis)
tips
Palms are not counted as trees because their trunks do not grow thick.