Natural Vegetation

AND
Wildlife

 The

Tundra Vegetation.
The Coniferous or Taiga
Vegetation.
The Temperate Grasslands or the
Prairies.
Mixed Forests
Mediterranean Vegetation.
Desert Vegetation.
Tropical Forests.

 This

type of vegetation is found in areas

which experience the arctic climate.
The vegetation comprise mosses, lichen,
grasses, and dwarf bushes.
The subsoil remains frozen throughout
the year.
Fur-bearing animals like polar bear, musk
ox, caribou, and Arctic fox are common
land animals.
Some animals here have thick layers of
fat under their skin.

 Just

south of the tundra is a broad belt of

cone-bearing trees with needle-like leaves
and long slender trunks.
The higher slopes of the western cordilleras
in British columbia and califonia have
Douglas fir, cedar, and giant sequoia trees.
Bears, wolves, minks, silver foxes, mooses,
elks, and beavers are commonly found here.
This region receives more snowfall than the
tundra.

 The

prairies are the natural vegetation of the

interior parts of North America in the cool
temperate latitudes.
Very little summer rainfall can support only
the rich, tall grasses, which occur in vast
stretches.
Mustangs, rabbits, gophers, skunks, prairie
falcon, and bald eagle are some common
birds and animals found here.

 The

region south of the taiga belt and the

east of the prairies has mixed vegetation or
forests with both deciduous and coniferous
trees.
The warmer southern areas have deciduous
trees like oak, maple, chestnut, beech and
birch.
These trees shed their leaves in the autumn
and yield hardwood.
The coniferous softwood trees like the pine,
spruce, fir, and larch are found in the cooler
regions.

 The

west coast of North America, especially

the Californian coast, experiences hot dry
summers and cool wet winters.
The cork oak, olive, Mediterranean pine,
laurel, and cedar are the trees found in this
region.
Fruit trees such as orange, peach, apricot,
lemon, and walnut thrives.
Fruit orchards have replaced much of the
original scrub- like vegetation called
chaparral.

 The

hot dry deserts of Mexico and the USA

have little or no vegetation other than
cactus, coarse grass, and spiny bushes such
as the creosote bush.
The saguaro is a giant cactus native to
southern USA and Mexico.
It has ribbed, branched stems.
The wildlife mainly consists of snakes,
lizards, scorpions, desert rats, and desert
foxes.

 The

tropical regions of the central America

has hardwood vegetation consisting mainly of
mahogany, palms, rubber, and cocoa trees.
Instead a variety of birds, monkeys, insects,
and reptiles thrive in the forests.

JYOTI