Spectacular Forests, Jungles, and Rainforests from Around the World
Forests - they cover nearly 10% of the earth's surface, are an essential part of maintaining a healthy planet. Jungles are a special subset of forests that grow in hot climate and are known for their dense foliage, rainforests are another specialized class of forests known for the high amount of rainfall they receive each year. Together, these areas make up some of the most strikingly beautiful, scenic and inspiring landscapes on the plant. Here's a look at 40 different forests, rainforests, and jungles from all across the globe.
Iguazu National Park
The Iguazu National Park is located in Argentina's Iguazu Department in the northern part of the country. Much of the park is dominated by the Iguazu River, whose banks are densely covered the trees that extend into Iguazu's forests. The ceibo tree, otherwise known as the Cockspur coral tree, is among the most recognizable trees in the area because its flower is the national flower of Argentina.
Noel Kempff Mercado National Park
The Noel Kempff Mercado National Park is located inside of Bolivia on the country's border with Brazil. Founded in 1979, the park is home to an estimated 4,000 species of vascual plants. It is home to a variety of bromelias, passifloras, heliconias, araceas, and palm trees, as well as a variety of important lumber trees. There are five ecosystems within the area, ranging from Amazonian rainforest to dry cerrado.
Tasmanian Wilderness
The Tasmanian Wilderness is located in the southwestern, western, and central parts of Tasmania. The reserve covers almost 20 percent of Tasmania and it is one of the largest conservation areas in Australia. As one of the largest expanses of land experiencing a temperate climate, the Tasmanian wilderness is home to a respectable variety of trees and features beautiful, untouched forests.
Kauai Jungle, Hawaii
Kauai, an island of the state of Hawaii, is home to Honopu Valley, which is in turn the home of many of Kauai's lush jungles. The jungles of Kauai are known for having an unusually dense amount of vegetation, so dense that hikers trying to get through the jungle may even have to crawl to get through some of the overgrowth. The jungle is also known for its large variety of edible fruits that grow naturally within, such as grapefruits and guavas.
Monteverde Cloud Forset
The Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve is a Costa Rican reserve located along the Cordillera de Tilarn mountain range. The reserve contains over 10,500 hectares of tropical rainforest and is visited by about 70,000 tourists each year. The area is known for an extremely high biodiversity, with over 2,500 plant species and several hundred species of vertebrates. The region is also home to the largest number of orchids in the world.
Mt. Hood
Mount Hood is a stratovolcano located in the Cascade Mountain Range of Northern Oregon. The Mount Hood National Forest holds 189,200 acres of designated wilderness and has become a popular tourist destination among visitors to the Pacific Northwest. Berry-picking and mushroom collecting have become popular traditions for visitors to the area, while local residents often come to the forest to select their Christmas tree during the holiday season.
Olympic National Park
Olympic National Park is located in Washington state's Olympic Peninsula. The western side of the park is home to a temperate rainforest, which includes the Hoh Rainforest and the Quinalt Rainforest, the wettest spot in the continental United States. As opposed to tropical rainforests, this rainforest is home to moss-laden coniferous timber.
Mount Rainier
Washington State's Mount Rainier is the tallest peak of the Pacific Northwest's Cascade Mountain Range and has become an immensely popular tourist destination. The wilderness surrounding the peak is dominated by enormous, ancient fir forests that thrive in the area's temperate climate. The area is also known for its wildflower-packed alpine and subalpine meadows.
Tongass National Forest
The Tongass National Forest is the largest national forest in the United States, dominating 17 million acres of southeastern Alaska. Most of the area is part of the temperate rainforest ecoregion and is home to a large variety of rare and endangered plant species because of its isolation. The area is home to many species of plants and animals that cannot be found anywhere else in North America, making it an important part of the continent's ecology.
Great Smoky Mountains
The Great Smoky Mountains are located along the Tennessee-North Carolina border in the southeastern part of the U.S. Heavy logging destroyed much of the region's forests, but the National Park Service estimates that about 187,000 acres of old growth forests still remain. The area is well-known for its cove hardwood forests, which are among the most diverse forest types in North America, as well as for its wide variety of wildflowers.
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park, which is located in east central California, covers 761,266 acres and reaches all the way to the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The park is visited by about 3.5 million tourists each year, many of whom come to experience the area's stunning biological diversity and its world-famous Giant Sequoia groves. Five major vegetation zones are contained within the boundaries of the park.
Crater Lake National Park
Crater Lake National Park is located in Southern Oregon and its primary feature is the spectacular Crater Lake. Among other features, the park is known for its 50,000 acres of old-growth forests, forests so old as to have acquired a variety of unique features as well as an impressive biodiversity. The area surrounding crater lake is heavily wooded with a variety of fir trees.
Sherwood Forest
Sherwood Forest is a Royal Forest located in England that is most famous for its association to the legends of Robin Hood. The forest has been wittled down to a relatively small 165-square-mile wood area, but it is still very popular amoung tourists because of its national beauty and association to legends. A famous aspect of the forest is Major Oak, which was thought to be Robin Hood's main hideout. It is distinguishable by the network of scaffolding that supports its limbs.
Cloud Forests of Henri Pittier National Park
The Henri Pittier National Park is the oldest national park in Venezuela and it is most famous for its birdlife. Several different ecosystems can be found througout the park, varying with its altitude. It is home to many cloud forests, which are evergreen montane moist forests with a high incidence of low-cloud cover. They usually have an abundance of moss covering the ground and the vegetation, which often leads to them being referred to as mossy forests.
Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park
The Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park is located in the Central Highlands of Tasmania. The area is an important location for Tasmania's endemic species, as anywhere from 40 to 55 percent of the park's alpine flora is endemic. The vegetation in the park is very diverse and has managed to escape unscathed from a variety of destructive fires that have caused neighboring regions much damage.
Yakushima Wilderness Area
Yakushima, which is one of the Osumi Islands, is located in the southern part of Japan. The area is covered in a dense forest which is most notable for its old growth Cryptomeria trees, which are known as Sugi in Japanese. The forest is a unique remnant of a warm-temperate ancient forest, which has been almost completely untouched by human development. It is also notable for being Japan's wettest spot in terms of rainfall.
Mt. Saint Helens
Photo credit:
Wikipedia (image before 1980 eruption)
Mount Saint Helens is an active stratovolcano located in Washington State. It is surrounded by the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, a reserve famous for culturall modified trees and an interestingly complex topography and volcanic geology. The forest itself is home to a large variety of endangered animal species, such as the bald eagle, the bull trout, and the chinook salmon.
Trillemarka
Trillemarka is a large nature reserve located in Buskerud, Norway, consisting of one of largest natural forests in the eastern part of Norway. The forest includes a virgin forest and 93 red list species, or threatened species. A large controversy has erupted in Norway over whether or not Trillemarka should be expanded and, if so, by how much land.
Inca Trail
The Inca Trail marked the pinnacle of transportation technology in pre-Colombian South America, consisting of two north-south roads with many branches. These roads stretch through many miles of pristine tropical forests due to the relatively untouched quality of many branches of the trail. The trail was often the only way for travelers to forge their way through the thick cloud forests and other vegetation in the area.
Fraser Island
Fraser Island is situated off the southern coast of Queensland, Australia, which is in the eastern part of the country. Considered to be the largest sand island in the world, Fraser Island's forests have suffered from centuries of logging. However, the logging industry finally left Fraser Island in 1991, which has allowed Fraser Island's fauna to begin its recovery.
Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves
The Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, otherwise known as the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves, constitute the most extensive area of subtropical rainforests in the world. About two million visitors come to the reserve each year to experience the area's shocking amounts of biodiversity, including over 200 rare or threatened animal and plant species. Evidence shows that many of the species of plants in the reserve's rainforests are directly descended from plants that populated Gondwana when it existed, hence the name.
Wet Tropics of Queensland
The Wet Tropics of Queensland includes an enormous amount of Australian wet tropical forests in the northeastern Queensland portion of the Great Dividing Range. Over 390 plant species, of which 74 are threatened, survive in the Wet Tropics of Queensland. At least 85 of these species are endemic to the area, with 13 different types of rainforest species and 29 different types of mangroves.
Laurel Forests
Laurel forests are humid subtropical forests found in the Macronesian Islands of the North Atlantic, such as the Madeira Islands, the Azores, and the Canary Islands. They are made up of laurel-leaved evergreen hardwood trees and contain an impressive variety of species endemic to the islands. Many of these forests have been damaged by years of logging and invasion from exotic species, but conservation efforts have improved the health of these forests.
Gilan Jungles of Iran
The jungles of Iran's Gilan Province fall in the humid temperate forest category and cover about 212,000 hectares of land. One of the most notable features of the area is a lack of coniferous trees, with only relics of coniferous tree species present in the area. The area is also home to some of the last remaining natural deciduous forests in the world.
Bialowieza Forest
The Bialowieza Forest is an ancient forest located on the border between Belarus and Poland, and it is one of the oldest and largest remaining primeval forests of the kind that once spread across the European plain. The forest has long held great significance for the cultures of the area, with historical references to the forest dating back to the 13th century. Another interesting feature of the forest is the variety of named oaks that dot the landscape.
Shirakami
Mount Shirakami is a mountain located in Sasayama, Hyogo, Japan. It is known for its outline, which closely resembles Mount Fuji to the point that it is known in Japanese as the Fuji in Tamba Province. The forest surrounding the mountain is classified as primeval beech forest and it has remained well preserved because it was never suitable for Shiitake farming. Because of this, the area is also home to many endangered plant species.
Shiretoko National Park
Shiretoko National Park covers much of the Shiretoko Peninsula at the northern tip of Japan's Hokkaido island. It is one of the most remote regions of Japan and is only accessible by foot or by boat. This has left its forest and wilderness areas relatively untouched by human development, allowing its temperate and subalpine mixed forests to thrive. Sakhalin fir, Erman's berch, and Mongolian oak are the main tree species in the area.
Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park
The Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks are jointly administered units of the National Park System, both of which are located in the southern Sierra Nevada. Sequoia National Park is most famous for its Giant Sequoia Tree, including the General Sherman tree, which is one of the largest trees in the world. Kings Canyon National Park is similarly famous for its own groves of sequoia trees, as well as for its mixed conifer forests.
Eldorado National Forest
The Eldorado National Forest is located in the central Sierra Nevada mountain range in California with a tiny portion extending into Nevada. The forest is graced by a Mediterranean climate, giving it warm, dry summers and cold, wet winters. The main vegetation types throughout the Eldorado National Forest are woodland, chaparral, mixed conifer, true fir, and subalpine.
Inyo National Forest
The Inyo National Forest is located mostly in California, with a smaller section in Western Nevada. About 238,000 acres of the forest is home to old-growth forests, where the most abundant trees are Lodgepole Pine and Jeffrey Pine. However, Inyo National Forest is most well-known for the elusive Great Basin Bristlecone Pine called Methuselah, which is the oldest non-clonal living tree on Earth at around 4,839 years old.
Sierra National Forest
The Sierra National Forest is located on the western slope of the central Sierra Nevada in California, covering more than 1,300,000 acres. The area's terrain includes rolling, oak-covered foothills alongside heavily forested slopes. About 383,000 acres of these forests are considered old-growth forests, containing large amounts of Lodgepole Pine and Red Fir.
Baxter State Park
Baxter State Park is a large wilderness area located in north-central Maine that covers 200,000 acres. The area's climate is the cool, moist climate that most of the region experiences that lends itself to deciduous trees. Many visitors come to Baxter State Park to experience the leaves changing colors from early September to late September and early October. Deciduous trees generally shed all their leaves by the end of October.
Boundary Waters Minnesota
The Boundary Waters, also called the Quetico-Superior country, is a region of wilderness that straddles the border between Ontario and Minnesota just west of Lake Superior. The region is most well known for a large amount of waterways and bogs, as well as for its boreal forests sitting upon bedrock and thin soils. In the southern part of the region, the boreal forest transitions to a deciduous forest.
Virgin Komi Forests
The Virgin Komi Forests is a natural UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Russia's Northern Ural Mountains. The largest virgin forest in Europe, the Virgin Komi Forests belong to the Ural Mountains taiga ecoregion. Siberian Spruce, Siberian Fir, and Siberian Larch are the most prominent species of trees in the area.
Hoh Rain Forest
The Hoh Rain Forest is part of the Olympic National Park, which is in turn located in Washington State's Olympic Peninsula. As one of the few temperate rainforests in the United States, and one of the largest, the forest is unique in the continental U.S. Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock are the dominant species of the area, with many examples of these species growing to impressive sizes.
Siskiyou Forest
The Siskiyou Forest, which is part of the Rogue River - Siskiyou National Forest reserve on the California-Oregon border, covers almost 1,800,000 acres. The forest is home to significant pockets of old growth comprised of Port Orfard cedar and Douglas fir in the area known as Copper Salmon. A study confirmed that the total area of old-growth forest in the reserve is about 345,300 acres. In 2002, a massive fire burned down almost 500,000 acres of the reserve.
Fiordland Rainforest NZ
New Zealand's Fiordland Rainforest is famous for its stunning scenery as well as for the rainforests that cling precariously to the sides of steep mountains in the area. The area has managed to remain relatively untouched by human hands, resulting in unbelievable natural beauty and rainforests with a shocking amount of biodiversity. Tourists to the area can delight in a variety of ways to experience everything the rainforest has to offer.
Amazon Rainforest
Few forests are as well known as the Amazon rainforest, which is also known as Amazonia or the Amazon jungle. Covering 1.4 billion acres of the Amazon Basin, the forest is a moist broadleaf forest and home to the most impressive biodiversity in the world: one-in-ten known species can be found in the Amazon rainforest. There are tens of thousands of different plant species throughout the Amazon rainforest and more are being discovered today.
Congo Forest
The Congo Basin Forest covers 700,000 square miles in six countries, making it the second largest area of moist tropical forest left in the world. The forest is part of the Congolian forests, which is a belt of lowland tropical moist broadleaf forest extending across the Congo River and into Central Africa. The forest transitions into drier savanna-like landscapes in the northern and southern parts of the Congolian forests.
Man National Park
Manu National Park is a biosphere reserve located in Cusco, Pero. It was originally well-preserved because of its inaccessibility but was converted into a national park once mankind started to enter the area. The park contains several ecological zones throughout its enormous area, giving it extremely high biodiversity, and as many as 250 varieties of trees can be found in a single hectare. Overall, there are more than 20,00 species of flora.