What is the flora like in Europe?
European flora Flowering plants in Europe vary from those growing in mediterranean to alpine to Arctic regions. Many of Europe’s flowering plants are similar to those in North America, belonging to many of the same genera but to different species.
What factors determine the location of plants in Europe?
Themost important factor determining the location of plants is climate. The continent of Europe ranges from the coastal areas on the northern shores of the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea to the Arctic Ocean north of the Scandinavian peninsula.
What is the purpose of Flora Europaea?
Flora Europaea. The Flora Europaea is a 5-volume encyclopedia of plants, published between 1964 and 1993 by Cambridge University Press. The aim was to describe all the national Floras of Europe in a single, authoritative publication to help readers identify any wild or widely cultivated plant in Europe to the subspecies level.
What plants live in the wetlands of Europe?
The marshes and swamps of Europe are populated mostly by indigenous plants. Large numbers of sedges that are native to Europe are grouped together in the Carex genus and can be found in Europe’s wetlands. Wetlands may have more “virgin” plant communities than anywhere else in Europe, because they were unsuitable for cultivation.
What is the most important factor in determining the location of plants?
What is the name of the tree that emigrated to North America?
What influences the temperature of flowers in Europe?
What determines where flowers are found?
Where is raspberry bush found?
Where are clovers native to?
Which part of Europe has the least frost?
See 2 more
What is the flora in Germany?
Germany - Flora and fauna Spruce and fir trees predominate in the upper mountains, while pine and larch are found in sandy soil. There are many species of ferns, flowers, fungi, and mosses. Fish abound in the rivers and the North Sea.
How many types of plants are in Europe?
Europe's flora comprises 20-25,000 species and this Red List includes 1,826 selected species of vascular plants native to Europe or naturalised before AD 1500.
What vegetation is commonly found in the mountains of Europe?
Temperate Mountain Systems are found in the Alps and the Pyrenees in Europe. They share several characteristics of the boreal zone and are snow covered for large parts of the year. Typical vegetation is pine forest.
What is the most common plant in Europe?
Trifolium repens, Achillea millefolium, and Urtica dioica should be regarded as the most common native species all over temperate Europe, while Matricaria discoidea and Erigeron canadensis are the most successful aliens here.
What happened to the trees in Europe?
In a report published in Scientific Reports, an international group of scientists researched Europe's forest loss using pollen analysis. Increased demand for agricultural land and wood fuel were found to be the leading causes for deforestation.
What are 5 physical features of Europe?
Ten major physical features of Europe are the Daunbe and Rhine rivers, the Ural and the Pyrenees mountains, the Alps, the Mediterranean Sea, the English Channel, the northern European Plain, and the Iberian and Scandinavian peninsulas.
What are the natural vegetation of Europe?
Europe has a variety of major vegetation zones, including semidesert, grass steppe, shrub (wooded) steppe, tundra, boreal forest, mountain forest and Alpine meadow, Mediterranean scrubland, and Mediterranean forest, as well as mixed forest.
Where are European forests?
In total, forests cover 37.7 % of the EU's land area and the six Member States with the largest forest areas (Sweden, Finland, Spain, France, Germany and Poland) account for two thirds of the EU's forested areas (3.2. 10).
What are the 4 main regions of Europe?
Europe can be divided into four major physical regions, running from north to south: Western Uplands, North European Plain, Central Uplands, and Alpine Mountains.
What are all countries in Europe?
GermanyItalyFranceUnited KingdomUkraineNetherlandsEurope/Countries and regions
What are the natural resources of Europe?
There are many different natural resources found in Europe. These include wood, soil, water, fish, natural gas, coal, and iron. The resource of fish and water can be found in the Mediterranean Sea. Water is an abundant resource in Europe because there are so many bodies of water in/near Europe.
Which food plants are native to Europe?
The Origin of Cultivated Fruits and VegetablesSourceFruitsVegetablesEurope (Western)ParsnipTurnipEurope (Eastern)AppleEndive LettucePearHorseradish45 more rows
What plant life is unique to Europe?
Olive Trees One native flowering plant of Europe deserves special mention: the olive tree. Having originated along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, it has been cultivated and modified to increase the size of its fruit since ancient times.
What are the main religions in Europe?
The major religions currently dominating European culture are Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Though Europe is predominantly Christian, this definition changes depending upon which measurement is used.
What vegetation does Europe have?
Europe has a variety of major vegetation zones, including semidesert, grass steppe, shrub (wooded) steppe, tundra, boreal forest, mountain forest and Alpine meadow, Mediterranean scrubland, and Mediterranean forest, as well as mixed forest.
How many animals are there in Europe?
European mammal fauna consists of 270 species, 78 of them endemic to Europe (15% of them are threatened with extinction and 27% have been identified as declining).
What is the most important factor in determining the location of plants?
Climate and Soil. Themost important factor determining the location of plants is climate. The continent of Europe ranges from the coastal areas on the northern shores of the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea to the Arctic Ocean north of the Scandinavian peninsula. Although most of Europe is in the temperate climate zone, ...
What is the name of the tree that emigrated to North America?
The mountain ash, with its bright orange berries, is another tree from Europe (where it is known as the rowan) that has emigrated to North America. The horse chestnut is yet another tree native to Europe that has long been settled in North America.
What influences the temperature of flowers in Europe?
An east-to-west factor also influences which flowering plants are found where in Europe. The Atlantic coastline is warmed year-round by the Gulf Stream, so that normal temperatures in the parts of the continent touched by this current (including much of the western Baltic Sea) have warmer temperatures in winter than their latitudes would indicate.
What determines where flowers are found?
Another factor in determining where flowering plants will be found is soil . The soil in the south of Europe tends to be sandy; the low annual rainfall at the Mediterranean shoreline means that what little rain there is flows rapidly through the soil , leaving relatively little for plants.
Where is raspberry bush found?
The raspberry bush found throughout eastern North America is a European native. Because birds are frequent consumers of its fruit, it has spread well beyond the beds where it was originally planted. The heather that covers many of the hills of northern Europe, where it is a native, has become popular with American florists as a filler for bouquets.
Where are clovers native to?
The clovers that are so familiar to Americans are all imports—the white clover, the red clover, and the alsike clover—are all natives of Europe. Several genera of grasses are found on both continents: Kentucky bluegrass is really the European smooth meadow grass.
Which part of Europe has the least frost?
By contrast, those parts of Europe that form the Scandinavian peninsula and northern Russia have frost-free periods each year of as little as two months. As a result, there is a south-to-north gradation of the flowering plants.
Why was a panel of regional advisers formed?
A panel of regional advisers was formed, in order to ensure full coverage of the whole of Europe. Several of the advisers were also authors in their respective taxonomic specialities. For each country the representatives were:
What is Flora Europaea?
The Flora Europaea is a 5-volume encyclopedia of plants, published between 1964 and 1993 by Cambridge University Press. The aim was to describe all the national Floras of Europe in a single, authoritative publication to help readers identify any wild or widely cultivated plant in Europe to the subspecies level.
When was the idea of a pan-European Flora first proposed?
The idea of a pan-European Flora was first mooted at the 8th International Congress of Botany in Paris in 1954. In 1957, Britain's Science and Engineering Research Council provided grants to fund a secretariat of three people, and Volume 1 was published in 1964.
Who is Tom Tutin?
Tom Tutin (1908–1987) – Professor of Botany at University of Leicester. Vernon Heywood (b. 1927) – Chief Scientist, Plant Conservation, IUCN and professor emeritus at University of Reading. Alan Burges (1911–2002) – Professor of Botany at University of Liverpool.
Which region is the Aegean Islands?
It includes the following regions: The East Aegean Islands, politically part of Greece, are part of the region of Western Asia, rather than the botanical continent of Europe. Native taxa of the lowest rank are included if they occur widely in the botanical continent, otherwise they should be included in the flora of one or more ...
Is the East Aegean part of Greece?
The East Aegean Islands, politically part of Greece, are part of the region of Western Asia, rather than the botanical continent of Europe.
What is the zone of mixed forest?
The northern vegetation may superficially suggest its primeval character, but the zone of mixed forest that once stretched across the continent from Great Britain and Ireland to central Russia has been changed extensively by humans. Surviving patches of woodland—associations of broad-leaved trees and some conifers, summarily described as Atlantic, central, and eastern—hint at the formerly extensive cover. Indeed, although as much as 80 percent of Europe’s land was once forested, in the early 21st century various forests (including both boreal and mixed types) covered only about 30 percent of the continent.
What are the vegetation zones in Europe?
vegetation zones; Europe. Major vegetation zones of Europe. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Tundra vegetation, made up of lichens and mosses, occupies a relatively narrow zone in Iceland and the extreme northern portions of Russia and Scandinavia, although that zone is continued southward in the mountains of Norway.
What is the meaning of the term "natural"?
It is nevertheless possible to envisage continental vegetation zones as they formed and acquired some stability during postglacial times, although such zones are only rarely recalled by present-day remnants.
How did vegetation change?
From prehistoric times onward, with ever-increasing force, humans, seeking optimum economic use of available resources, have acted as a vigorous agent of vegetation change. The effects of grazing animals may well explain why some heathlands (e.g., the Lüneburg Heath in north-central Germany) replaced primeval forest. By fire and later by ax, forest clearance met demands for building materials for homes and ships, for fuel, for charcoal for iron smelting, and, not least, for more available land for cultivation and pasture. The mixed forests suffered most because their relatively rich soils and long and warm growing season promised good returns from cultivation. The destruction of woodlands was markedly strong when population was growing (as between about 800 and 1300 ce ). It was later intensified by German colonization east of the Rhine and reached maximum scale in the 19th century. In southern Europe—where naval demands were continuous and sources of suitable timber sharply localized—tree cutting entailed, from Classical antiquity onward, serious soil loss through erosion, increased aridity, floods, and marsh formation. Farther north throughout the continent, as present distribution of arable land shows, forests were reduced to remnants; only in the north and below the snow line of Alpine mountains have forests of large and continuing commercial value survived. Another drastic vegetation change brought about by humans has been the virtual elimination of the wooded and grass steppes, which have become vast granaries.
What type of trees were found in Europe during the postglacial period?
During postglacial times, therefore, when small numbers of humans were living within Europe, the continental surface was thickly clad with trees and undergrowth, except where tree growth was precluded by extreme cold, high elevation, bad drainage, or exposure to persistent gales. Even those areas where windblown loess was deeply deposited are now known to have had woods of beech, hawthorn, juniper, box, and ash, as did limestone plateaus. The Mediterranean peninsulas also had evergreen and mixed forests rooted in an ample soil.
How much of Europe's land was once forested?
Indeed, although as much as 80 percent of Europe’s land was once forested, in the early 21st century various forests (including both boreal and mixed types) covered only about 30 percent of the continent.
Why is scrub scattered in Greece?
Scrub is scattered because of summer drought, particularly in areas where the soil is underlain by limestone or where there is little, if any, soil. Greece: maquis.
What is the most important factor in determining the location of plants?
Climate and Soil. Themost important factor determining the location of plants is climate. The continent of Europe ranges from the coastal areas on the northern shores of the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea to the Arctic Ocean north of the Scandinavian peninsula. Although most of Europe is in the temperate climate zone, ...
What is the name of the tree that emigrated to North America?
The mountain ash, with its bright orange berries, is another tree from Europe (where it is known as the rowan) that has emigrated to North America. The horse chestnut is yet another tree native to Europe that has long been settled in North America.
What influences the temperature of flowers in Europe?
An east-to-west factor also influences which flowering plants are found where in Europe. The Atlantic coastline is warmed year-round by the Gulf Stream, so that normal temperatures in the parts of the continent touched by this current (including much of the western Baltic Sea) have warmer temperatures in winter than their latitudes would indicate.
What determines where flowers are found?
Another factor in determining where flowering plants will be found is soil . The soil in the south of Europe tends to be sandy; the low annual rainfall at the Mediterranean shoreline means that what little rain there is flows rapidly through the soil , leaving relatively little for plants.
Where is raspberry bush found?
The raspberry bush found throughout eastern North America is a European native. Because birds are frequent consumers of its fruit, it has spread well beyond the beds where it was originally planted. The heather that covers many of the hills of northern Europe, where it is a native, has become popular with American florists as a filler for bouquets.
Where are clovers native to?
The clovers that are so familiar to Americans are all imports—the white clover, the red clover, and the alsike clover—are all natives of Europe. Several genera of grasses are found on both continents: Kentucky bluegrass is really the European smooth meadow grass.
Which part of Europe has the least frost?
By contrast, those parts of Europe that form the Scandinavian peninsula and northern Russia have frost-free periods each year of as little as two months. As a result, there is a south-to-north gradation of the flowering plants.
