Woodland Plants

Main Trees In Woodland

OAK TREE

Dig up the roots of an old oak tree and arrange the pieces to form a straight line. It would extend to 40,000 kilometer! – Enough rope to tie around the world! Among all the trees, the oak has the most roots.

BEECH TREE

The beech tree usually grows tall and straight, upto a height of 45 meters. They spread their branches on the forest floor, to create a tangled mass wood and leaves! People say that monks who dwelt here a thousand years ago, caused these trees to grow in this complex fashion

ASH TREE

The tree's common English name came from Old English documents to refer to spears made of ash wood. The wood is hard, tough and very strong but elastic, extensively used for making tool handles, quality wooden baseball bats and other uses demanding high strength and resilience

MAPLE TREE

Maples are mostly trees growing to 10-45 meters (30-145 ft) in height. However, one tree can release hundreds of the seeds at a time. Norway maple is especially popular as it is fast-growing. Many maples have bright autumn foliage, and many countries have leaf-watching traditions. In Japan, the custom of viewing the changing colour of maples in the autumn is called "momijigari".

Woody Plants

A plant doesn’t usually grow by itself .It needs company. In anyone place there are usually lots of plants growing together. This collection of plants is called a community.

This woodland community contains
trees, bushes and plants such as ferns.

Plants live in places where the climate is right for them. They need the right kind of soil too. So all the plants in a community need more or less the same kind of living conditions.

Many of the woodlands we see have been planted by people. In places like North America and East Asia the summers are not too hot, winters not too cold, there quite regular rainfall. This is where the deciduous forests grow best.
Trees like oak, beech, ash and maple are the most important plants in deciduous. And because light and air can get between the branches, smaller plants and shrubs can shelter and grow closer to the ground. Flowers often cover the woodland floor in spring, before the leaves grow.

In spring there are few leaves on the trees. The sun warms the woodland floor. Soon there are thousands of bluebells flowering

PLANTS FROM DIFFERENT COUNTRIES

HERE ARE SOME WELL KNOWN PLANTS OF DIFFERENT ORIGIN WHICH ARE VERY FAMILIAR TO US

Tea - China
Potato - Peru, South America
Tomato - South America
Apple - Central Asia
Wheat - South West Asia
Maize(Corn) - Central America
Coffee - Ethiopia

ORIGIN OF SOME OTHER FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

Grapes, Olive, pomegranate -Mediterranean
Plum, raspberry -Europe
Banana, mango -East Asia
Papaya, pineapple, strawberry-America
Radish, Cucumber -China
Pumpkin -South America
Carrot -Afghanistan
Watermelon -South Africa
Groundnut(Peanut) -South America
Lady’s finger(Okra) -Ethiopia
Onion -Egypt

Tea

All of us are familiar with tea. It is one of the most popular drinks in our country. Wherever you go-at home, in restaurants, in trains, in villages and cities-you find people sipping tea with pleasure. When people visit us, we serve them tea as a mark of our hospitality. In parties, functions and conferences, tea is usually served as the welcome drink. Over the years, tea has become a very important part of our culture.

From its popularity, it would seem that tea has been a traditional drink in India from the ancient times. But do you know that in India people were introduced to tea only less than two hundred years ago?

ORIGIN OF TEA

People in China were drinking tea long before it came to our country. There is a story on the origin of tea. It is said that one of the emperors of China who lived 5000 years ago, always boiled his drinking water. One day a few leaves fell into the pot of boiling water, giving it a delightful scent and flavor. The emperor liked the drink so much that he ordered his servants to make the special drink for him regularly. The branches were those of the wild tea plant. Thus tea was discovered by accident.

Tea is cultivated in the north-east regions in India, especially in the Brahmaputra valley of Assam and Darjeeling . These places are suitable for tea cultivation because of the warm weather, long sun-shine hours, high humidity, and plenty of rainfall.

Today India and Sri Lanka are the largest tea producing countries in the world.

POTATO

The potato is believed to have originated from Peru in South America. Potatoes spread to the rest of the world, when the Spanish introduced it in Spain in the 16th Century. From there, potato spread to the rest of Europe, North America, Africa and Asia.

TOMATO

The tomato plant is native to South America. After the Spanish conquered South America, they brought it to their colonies in West Indies. They also brought it to the Philippines, from where it moved it to south east Asia and then the whole of Asia.

APPLE

The apple tree probably has its origin in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and
Xinjiang, China). It was perhaps the earliest tree to be cultivated. Apples grow well in cooler climates.

In 1916, Samuel Stokes, a social worker from Philadelphia in the USA brought the first apple saplings to Kotgarh, in Himachal Pradesh. Apples are primarily grown in the states of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttaranchal. Some apple cultivation is also done in Arunachal praesh.

China is the largest producer of apple in the world while India is the 9th largest producer in the world.

WHEAT

The first cereal known to have been domesticated, wheat originated in southwest Asia (Israel, Syria and Turkey). It was domesticated in this region about 10000 years ago. Wheat cultivation started in India as early as 5000 BC.

MAIZE

Maize or corn, is a cereal that originated in Central America. Maize domestication occurred 9000 years ago in central Mexico. It spread to the rest of the world by Europeans in the late 15th century and early 16th century. It is believed that maize cultivation started in India about 300 to 400 years back.

COFFEE

Coffee has a history as far back as the 9th century. It is thought to have originated in the high lands of Ethopia and spread to the rest of the world via Egypt and Europe. No one knows how coffee really came to India. It is said that in the 17th century, Baba Budan, a pilgrim traveling to the holy places of Islam brought back seven coffee seeds from Yemen. These seeds were planted in the hills of Chandragiri situated in Karnataka. Coffee cultivation actually started in India only in the 18th century.

Source : Google , Manorama , Wikipedia.