In 2015, scientists calculated that at least 3 trillion trees are growing on our planet. The record holder for their number is Russia, because we have at least 640 billion of them.
More than 60 thousand species of trees are known. They can be divided into coniferous, evergreen, and deciduous. In turn, the latter are divided into broad-leaved (ash, beech, maple), deciduous and evergreen. If you want to know more about these plants, read 10 interesting facts about trees.
10. Forest - the lungs of the planet
About a third of all land is forest. Plants need light energy to synthesize organic matter. This process is called photosynthesis. Its by-product is oxygen.
Only thanks to plants can we breathe. they produce 99% of oxygen, and only 1% comes from the mantle of our planet. At night, when the process of photosynthesis is impossible, trees and other plants begin to consume oxygen, but they consume it in smaller quantities than they produce.
Not only trees are involved in oxygen production, but also all plants that inhabit our planet, including microscopic algae that form phytoplankton.
9. The total forest area on Earth is almost a third of the land surface
The forest on our planet occupies about 38 million km², i.e. trees occupy about a third of all land. By the beginning of the XXI century, people destroyed about 50% of the forests that existed on the planet. They tried to somehow compensate for the damage that they caused to nature, and planted new forests, but they occupy no more than 7% of the entire territory allotted for trees.
Forests need to be revived, because only thanks to them the air is purified, they absorb industrial pollution, many trees emit volatile, having bactericidal properties.
In coniferous forests, almost sterile air. If you visit nature more often, immunity rises, metabolism improves, the nervous system calms down, etc.
8. Taiga occupies about 79% of the entire territory of Russia
Our country occupies a vast territory, and 79% of all this land is covered by taiga. This is a special landscape zone with marshy soil, where coniferous trees grow. The width of this strip is 800 km, but in the east of Siberia it becomes even larger - up to 2200 km.
Winter lasts 10 months. Most animals hibernate at this time. In winter, the temperature can drop to -60 degrees, and in summer rises to +35 degrees. Taiga is rich in fur animals, here you can see more than 800 species of flowers, 300 species of birds, some of which are listed in the Red Book.
7. The most common deciduous tree in the world is birch.
In the Northern Hemisphere, including in Russia, one of the most common deciduous plants is birch.. There are more than 100 species of birch. This is the most important forest-forming breed, which can grow almost everywhere, because not demanding on soil, lives long enough (100-120 years, individual trees survive up to 400 years), grows rapidly, when compared with others.
As soon as a place is vacated in the forest due to clearings or fires, young birch trees begin to inhabit it first, which can later be replaced by fir trees.
6. One of the hardest trees in the world is Schmidt’s birch.
Another name for this tree is iron birch. It was named after the botanist Fedor Schmidt, who first discovered this species. It is not so common, it grows only in the south of Primorsky Krai, as well as in China, Japan and the Korean Peninsula. She lives up to 350 years.
Schmidt’s birch wood is heavy and hard, it drowns in water and is particularly durable. Usually this is a tall tree, up to 25 m, some of them grow up to 35 m, with a trunk diameter of 70 to 80 cm. They have a beige, grayish bark, in young seedlings it is almost brown, and in branches it is dark, cherry.
5. From one tree you can get about 60 kg of paper
To obtain paper, we need not wood, but cellulose, for the production of which some forest species are used..
Special machines remove bark from the trees, and the tree itself is crushed into small chips. Then they are mixed with water and processed, pressed, ironed. In this way newsprint is made.
If you need better, cellulose must be treated with chemical materials. Notebooks or books can be printed from such sheets.
To obtain premium paper, the wood material is boiled, washed, filtered, then pressed, rolled out and smoothed, and then dried at a certain temperature.
4. The world's tallest trees - sequoias
Sequoia is an evergreen native to North America. They can live up to 2 thousand years, grow up to 110 m. It is a tree with a conical crown and horizontal branches, with a thick, up to 30 cm thick, red-brown bark. Often grow up to 60-90 m.
But the largest tree on Earth was named one of the instances of this tree, which received the name "Hyperion". Its height is 115, 61 m. It grows in California (USA), in the Redwood National Park. It was discovered in 2006.
3. Siberia - the most forested place in Russia
Siberia, with the exception of the Far East, covers an area of 12 million square meters. km, and about two-thirds of the entire territory are taiga forests. They begin in the European part of our country, cover the entire Urals, Altai, and all Western and Eastern Siberia, capturing the Far East. Extend over 9 thousand kilometers.
Taiga is about 80% of the total forest fund of our country. It, like other forests, occupies almost half of the territory of our country (45%), and if we take the global forest area - as much as 17%. The northern hemisphere of the Earth is enriched with oxygen thanks to this forest.
2. Oak crown per year grows by about one meter
Acorns germinate very slowly, because first, a root is formed and grows, and only then does the aerial part appear.
The first few years, the oak grows very slowly. A seedling of 30-50 cm in length should grow 4-6 years. It is at this age that it can be transplanted to a permanent place. At the age of 5-7 years, a young oak grows to 1 m; it is from 5-10 years that its intensive growth begins.
There are some types of oak, for example, red-leaved, which grows faster. It’s difficult to say exactly how much a particular tree stretches per year, because each plant has its own growth rate. But per year, oak grows by about 1 m, i.e. in 10 years it can grow by 8-9 m and more.
1. The smallest forest among European countries in the UK
Once upon a time, huge deciduous forests grew on the territory of Great Britain. Here lived the Celts, worshiping trees, especially oaks, treated them with reverence and awe.
But soon these lands were conquered by the Anglo-Saxon tribes, who began to cut down forests and cultivate the land. This process continued for more than a century, and as a result By the end of the twentieth century, the forest area in this country was reduced to 10% of the entire island.
Now you can find mixed or taiga forests there. The most common trees in this area are beech, birch and oak. In the mountains stretch heathlands, which have become pastures for sheep, as well as peat bogs.
Plains are arable lands and meadows, they are densely populated. Huge forests replaced small woodlands. But, despite this, England seems to be a green country thanks to hedges, lepopolos, various farm plantings.