Deciduous Forest Meaning, Location and Facts (original) (raw)

Last Updated : 23 Jul, 2025

**Deciduous Forest- Deciduous forest refers to those forests which are characterized by trees that shed their leaves annually. Plants such as mosses, herbs, and ferns are found in these forests. Deciduous forests are found mostly in North America, Europe, and Asia. Different types of deciduous forests include temperate deciduous forests, the tropical and subtropical deciduous forests.

Tropical Deciduous forests of India

Tropical Deciduous Forests of India

What are Deciduous Forests?

The Indian vegetation is mostly consisting of tropical deciduous forests. These forests are found in regions receiving rainfall between 200 cm and 70 cm. The tropical deciduous forests shed their leaves for about 1.5 to 2 months before winter. Some evergreen trees retain their leaves throughout the year. Deciduous forests are having different varieties of trees.

Deciduous Forest in India

The bioregion known as Indian Dry Deciduous Forests is situated within the Indian Subcontinent subrealm and encompasses four distinct ecoregions: Chhota-Nagpur Dry Deciduous Forests, Narmada Valley Dry Deciduous Forests, Khathiar-Gir Dry Deciduous Forests, and Indus River Delta-Arabian Sea Mangroves.

Types of Trees in Tropical Deciduous Forests

Edible fruit-bearing trees like apples, oranges, bananas, and pears and non-edible fruit-bearing trees like maple, eke, elm, beech, and birch are found in the maximum regions of tropical deciduous forests.

Location of Deciduous Forest

Deciduous forest are found mostly in the eastern half of north America and in Europe. In case of Asian countries, like northeastern China Plain, Japan are some of the important places where we can find deciduous woods and other important places include Southwest Russia, Southern Chile and Paraguay. Also, can be found in New Zealand and Australia.

Natural Vegetation in India

Natural Vegetation in India

Natural Vegetation in India

Deciduous Forest Characteristics

The table which is given below mentions the main features of Tropical Deciduous Forests and also differentiates them from the other types of forests:

**Sr. No. **Characteristics of Tropical Deciduous Forests in India
**1 Tropical Deciduous Forests are also known as Monsoon Forests.
**2 The rainfall in Tropical Deciduous Forests ranges from 70-200 cm.
**3 These forests are found in areas where a long dry season is followed bya heavy rainfall season is one of the characteristics of the region.
**4 Tropical Deciduous Forests are of two types:Moist Deciduous Forests: Mixture of trees and grasses.Dry Deciduous Forests
**5 Tropical deciduous forests are found along the Equator belt betweenTropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn
**6 Major States where tropical deciduous forests are found:Madhya PradeshUttar PradeshChhattisgarhOdishaMaharashtra
**7 The humidity of these types of forests lies between 80-90 percent.
**8 The average temperature in tropical deciduous forests is 30 degrees Celcius.
**9 These forests are less dense as compared to evergreen forests.
**10 Prime features include seasonality, as the leaves are shed in the dry season and theleaves are grown back in the rainy season.

Types of Deciduous Forests: Moist Deciduous and Dry Deciduous Forests

In the table given below we will understand the features and characteristics of moist and dry deciduous forests:

**Features **Moist Deciduous Forests **Dry Deciduous Forests
**Rainfall 100-200 cmsAnnual Temperature Mean: 27 degrees CelsiusHumidity Annually: 60-75 percent 70-100 cm
**Regions The regions where they are found are:North-eastern states along Himalayan foothillsEastern slopes of Western GhatsOdisha Rainy areas of Peninsular IndiaUttar PradeshBiharVegetation is scanty in Rajasthan in Southern and Western areas.
**Species TeakSalHurraKusum SandalwoodAmla PalasKhairAxlewoodTenduBel
**Other Features Areas of open grass patches are found in these forests. A moist portion of these forests transforms into moist deciduous forests; While drier areas into thorn forests.These forests have parkland landscape with open stretches in higher rainfall regions of the Peninsular.In the dry season, the trees of these forests shed their leaves completely and turn into grassland.

Distribution of Deciduous Forests- World

The distribution of tropical deciduous forests worldwide is majorly found in:

Deciduous Forest Examples

Some important examples of deciduous forest include European Temperate Deciduous Forest, Northeast China Plan and Great Smoky Mountain in UK.

  1. Tropical Thorn Forests and Scrubs