What is an evergreen forest in simple words?

An evergreen forest is a forest whose trees keep green leaves through every season. The trees still drop old leaves, but only a few at a time, while new ones keep growing. So the canopy never turns bare. Tropical rainforests, temperate rainforests and most conifer forests are all evergreen forests.

What are some examples of evergreen forests?

Well-known examples include the Amazon rainforest in South America, the Congo Basin rainforest in Africa and the island rainforests of Southeast Asia. Outside the tropics, the Hoh and Quinault rain forests of Olympic National Park in Washington State and the fir forests of the Pacific Northwest are evergreen too. India's examples grow in the Western Ghats.

What is a broadleaf evergreen forest?

It is an evergreen forest made of trees with wide, flat leaves instead of needles. Tropical rainforests are the biggest example. Outside the tropics, the US Forest Service describes coastal forests of evergreen oaks, laurels and magnolias in the south-eastern United States, and low, leathery-leaved oak forests in Mediterranean-type California.

Are all evergreen forests found in the tropics?

No. Many lie far from the Equator. Most of the taiga in Canada, Scandinavia and Siberia is evergreen conifers, though its larches shed their needles, and cool temperate rainforests grow on rainy coasts such as the Pacific Northwest, Chile and New Zealand. Evergreen describes the leaves, not the climate zone, so it can apply to hot or cold forests.

Is a pine forest an evergreen forest?

Yes, in almost every case. Pines keep their needles for several years and replace them gradually, so a pine forest stays green in winter. Spruce, fir and hemlock behave the same way. The larch is the main exception among conifers, because it sheds all its needles every autumn.

Evergreen Forest: Meaning, Features, Trees and Examples

An evergreen forest is a forest whose trees stay green through every season. The trees do shed leaves, but a few at a time, so the canopy never stands bare. Evergreen forests range from hot tropical rainforests to cool, rainy conifer forests, and their trees can have broad leaves or needles.

Evergreen is a label based on leaves, not on climate. That is why one word covers forests on the Equator and forests near the Arctic. Our main guide to types of forests explains both ways of grouping forests. This page stays with the evergreen family: what it is, its kinds, its trees and where it grows on the world map.

What is an evergreen forest?

The word evergreen describes a tree that carries living leaves in every month of the year. National Geographic’s entry on vegetation regions defines evergreen forests in just this way and gives the fir forests of the Pacific Northwest as an example.

Each leaf on an evergreen tree lives for a limited time, then falls. Because new leaves keep opening as old ones drop, the crown always looks full. A deciduous tree works differently: it loses nearly all its leaves in one season, the cold winter or the dry season.

Evergreen leaves come in two shapes:

Broad leaves: wide and flat, like those of mahogany, evergreen oak or magnolia.
Needles or scales: narrow and waxy, like those of pine, spruce, fir and hemlock.

A forest counts as evergreen when evergreen trees make up most of its canopy.

What are the types of evergreen forest?

Most evergreen forests fall into the groups below.

Type of evergreen forest	Leaf type	Climate in brief	Where on Earth	Typical trees
Tropical rainforest	Broad	Hot and very wet	Amazon, Congo Basin, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, western India	Brazil nut, kapok, figs; rosewood and ebony in India
Warm temperate (laurel) forest	Broad, often leathery	Mild, with rain spread through the year	Gulf and Atlantic coasts of the south-eastern United States	Evergreen oaks, laurels, magnolias
Mediterranean evergreen woodland	Small, hard, leathery	Hot dry summers, mild rainy winters	Coastal California and other Mediterranean-type coasts	Live oak
Temperate rainforest	Needles in the Pacific Northwest (NPS)	Cool, mild and extremely wet	Pacific Northwest, Chile, New Zealand, southern Australia	Sitka spruce, western hemlock, coast redwood
Boreal and temperate conifer forest	Needles	Cold winters, often snowy	Canada, Alaska, Scandinavia, Siberia; mountain ranges	Spruce, fir, pine

Tropical evergreen forest (tropical rainforest)

The tropical rainforest is the best-known evergreen forest. National Geographic defines it as a grouping of tall evergreen trees, usually close to the Equator, that receives more than 203 cm (80 inches) of rain a year. Its Forest Biome page reports tropical forest temperatures of about 20 to 31 °C. National Geographic calls tropical rainforests a type of broad-leaved forest. Read the full guide to the tropical rainforest for its climate and layers.

Broadleaf evergreen forests outside the tropics

Broad-leaved evergreens also grow in warm temperate lands. The US Forest Service describes the Outer Coastal Plain of the south-eastern United States, from the Atlantic coast to the Gulf of Mexico and Florida. There, average yearly temperatures run from 16 to 21 °C, and rain falls well spread through the year. The natural forest is a laurel forest, which the Forest Service also calls temperate evergreen forest. Common species include evergreen oaks and members of the laurel and magnolia families. Its leaves are usually smaller and more leathery than tropical ones.

A drier kind grows where summers are hot and rainless. In coastal Southern California, the Forest Service describes hot, dry summers and mild, rainy winters. On the hills grows sclerophyll forest: low trees with small, leathery leaves that survive the summer drought. Live oak woodland is one example. “Sclerophyll” means hard-leaved; a tough leaf loses little water.

Temperate rainforest

Some cool coasts are wet enough for rainforest. National Geographic notes that the evergreen forests of North America’s Pacific Northwest and of Northern Europe count as rainforests. It lists temperate rainforests on the coasts of the Pacific Northwest, Chile, the United Kingdom, Norway, Japan, New Zealand and southern Australia.

Olympic National Park in Washington State protects a famous example. The US Park Service reports 140 to 167 inches of precipitation a year in its rain-forest valleys, roughly 356 to 424 cm. Temperatures rarely fall below freezing, and summer highs seldom pass 80 °F (about 27 °C). Sitka spruce and western hemlock dominate, and some trees reach 250 feet (about 76 m). See our page on the temperate rainforest for more.

Coniferous evergreen forests

Most conifers, the cone-bearing trees, keep their needles all year. So most of the cold boreal forest and the temperate conifer forests of mountains and coasts are evergreen too. The larch is the exception: it drops its needles each autumn, so larch stands are deciduous. National Geographic names spruce, fir and pine as the main trees of the boreal forest. Our guides to the taiga and the temperate coniferous forest cover them in depth.

What are the features of an evergreen forest?

Green cover in every month. Leaf fall is spread out, so the forest never looks bare.
A dense, shady canopy. Little light reaches the ground, especially in rainforests.
Plenty of water. Many evergreen forests, especially rainforests, are wet from heavy rain or frequent fog.
Several layers of plants. Tall trees, shorter trees, shrubs and ground plants stack on top of each other.
Epiphytes in wet types. Mosses, ferns, orchids and lichens grow on trunks and branches. The Park Service says they give Olympic’s rain forest a jungle-like feel.

Which trees grow in evergreen forests?

Evergreen forest trees differ from one region to the next.

Amazon rainforest: the Brazil nut tree and the kapok tree rise above the canopy. Fig trees are common fruit trees in tropical rainforests around the world.
Indian rainforests: rosewood, mahogany, aini and ebony (NCERT).
South-eastern US laurel forest: evergreen oaks, laurels and magnolias, often draped in Spanish moss.
California’s Mediterranean coast: live oak, plus endemic conifers such as the Monterey cypress and Torrey pine.
Pacific Northwest: Sitka spruce, western hemlock and fir; the coast redwood grows in California’s temperate rainforest.
Boreal forest: spruce, fir and pine.

National Geographic notes that the Brazil nut tree can live up to 1,000 years in undisturbed rainforest.

Where are evergreen forests found on the world map?

On a world map, evergreen forests form two main belts, one hot and one cool.

The tropical belt. National Geographic places tropical rainforests mainly between the Tropic of Cancer (23.5°N) and the Tropic of Capricorn (23.5°S). The largest surround the Amazon River in South America and the Congo River in Africa. Others grow in Central America, western and central Africa, western India, Southeast Asia, the island of New Guinea and Australia.

The cool belt. Needle-leaved evergreen forest stretches across the far north, through Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia and Siberia. Temperate rainforests line rainy, mountainous coasts in the middle latitudes.

Region	Example	Kind of evergreen forest
South America	Amazon rainforest	Tropical broadleaf
Central Africa	Congo Basin rainforest	Tropical broadleaf
Southeast Asia and New Guinea	Island rainforests	Tropical broadleaf
North America (west coast)	Olympic National Park, Washington	Temperate rainforest (conifers)
North America (south-east)	Gulf and Atlantic coastal plain	Warm temperate broadleaf
South America (south)	Coastal Chile	Temperate rainforest
Northern Eurasia and Canada	Taiga	Boreal conifer

A walk through a tropical evergreen forest, layer by layer

Picture yourself entering a tropical rainforest such as the Amazon. National Geographic describes four layers, each with its own light, water and air movement.

1. Emergent layer

First look up. A few giant trees, up to 60 m (200 feet) tall, break out above everything else. Their trunks are fairly bare until the crowns spread wide in full sun. Strong winds up here carry their light seeds away. In the Amazon, Brazil nut and kapok trees are typical emergents.

2. Canopy

Below the giants lies the canopy, a thick roof of leaves about 6 m deep. It blocks much of the wind, rain and sunlight, so the air beneath stays dark, still and humid. Many canopy leaves are glossy, with pointed drip tips that shed water quickly. Without wind to scatter seeds, canopy trees wrap them in fruit. Animals eat the fruit and drop the seeds far away.

3. Understorey

Step down into the understorey (spelt “understory” in American books). It is darker, calmer and even more humid. Palms and other short plants grow here, and their leaves are bigger than canopy leaves, so they can catch the little light that gets through. Bright flowers such as Heliconia, and strongly scented orchids, attract pollinators in the gloom.

4. Forest floor

Finally, look at your feet. The forest floor is the darkest layer, and few plants manage to grow on it. Fallen leaves rot quickly here. Fungi and bacteria do most of the decay, and termites, slugs and worms feed on the litter. Nutrients released in this way are soon taken up by the shallow roots of the trees above.

Which animals live in evergreen forests?

Evergreen forests offer food and cover all year, so they hold a great variety of animals. In tropical rainforests, monkeys, sloths, parrots and toucans feed high in the trees, while jaguars, snakes and tree frogs use the shade lower down. Cooler evergreen forests have their own residents: Olympic National Park supports the largest wild herds of Roosevelt elk in the US. For a layer-by-layer list with Indian examples, see our guide to animals of the tropical evergreen forest.

Are there evergreen forests in India?

Yes. NCERT places India’s tropical evergreen forests on the western slope of the Western Ghats, in the north-eastern hills and on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. These are warm, humid areas with over 200 cm of rain a year. Our page on tropical evergreen forests in India covers their regions, climate and trees in detail.

Why are evergreen forests important?

Biodiversity. Tropical rainforests contain more than half of the world’s biodiversity.
Climate control. National Geographic explains that rainforests store excess carbon dioxide in their trees and soil, which helps regulate the global climate.
Rain making. Rainforest trees release water vapour that helps clouds form.

They also face serious threats. National Geographic says unsustainable industrial and farm development have severely degraded the world’s rainforests. The Park Service notes that temperate rain forest once ran from southern Oregon to southeast Alaska, yet little now survives outside protected areas.

How do evergreen forests compare with forests that drop their leaves? Our table on the difference between tropical evergreen and deciduous forests sets them side by side, and deciduous vs coniferous forest explains the needle-leaved side.