Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2024 i Faces People, Places, and World Culture for Kids and Children

Some forests are peaceful. Others are enchanted. Many are in danger. What makes a forest a forest? Read on to find out. Here are five fascinating facts to get you started. 1 Forests are classified into three different types. A boreal forest, also known as taiga, is located the farthest north and experiences long, cold winters. A tropical forest exists along the equator and has high temperatures and long growing seasons. A temperate forest goes through four distinct seasons, so the temperatures uctuate throughout the year. 2 One of the most threatened animals on the planet is an antelope called the saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis). A cousin to the cow, it is found only in the lowland forests of the Annamite Mountains in Laos and Vietnam. Though it has two horns,…

An otter floats on his back and pulls a favorite rock from a pocket under his arm. Wham! He whacks a sea urchin and slurps up a tasty treat. The otter is one of the keystone species living in the kelp forest. Without it, the kelp ecosystem would fall apart. Kelp, a type of seaweed, can grow up to 200 feet. Similar to a coniferous forest that is made of densely packed cone bearing trees, a kelp forest is made of densely packed kelp fronds, which grow in cold, ocean waters. Unlike trees, kelp don’t have roots. Instead, each kelp plant has a “holdfast,” which clasps onto rocks and anchors it to the ocean floor. The fronds are kept afloat by pneumatocysts (noo-MAT-uh-sists), bubble-like pouches filled with air. There are…

Characters: › Narrator › Pip:the papal, or banyan tree › Bandevi:goddess of the forest › Utti:the uttis, an evergreen tree growing in ravines › Rhoda:the laligurans, or rhododendron NARRATOR: Long, long ago, in the Himalaya Mountains of Nepal, trees used to get married. PIP: Greetings, Bandevi, I am ready to match another pair of trees for marriage. BANDEVI: Have you seen beautiful Rhoda? Her blossoms fill the spring woodlands with a deep, crimson color. Because you are tall and able to see far away, explore the forest for a magnificent husband for her. NARRATOR: Pip and all the trees loved the brilliant Rhoda because she was loving and kind to everyone. Pip searched the forest for the most handsome tree to be her husband. PIP: I see a magnificent uttis…

CRITTER CORNER The Amazon Rainforest in South America is one of the most important forests in the world, and fig trees are one of the most important species in tropical rainforests. Of the 150 fig species in the Amazon, one of the most successful survivors is the strangler fig. If you’re thinking this species sounds a little scary, you’re not wrong. In Peru, strangler figs are called matapalos (tree killers). Life Cycle In the dark Amazon forest, plants fight for light. The strangler fig is one of the best competitors in the rainforest. Read on. • Sticky strangler fig seeds are dropped by birds and fall into cracks of a host tree’s bark in the treetops. They “start at the top,” and don’t mess around growing from the soil on…

“I am the Lorax who speaks for the trees, which you seem to be chopping as fast as you please!” —Dr. Seuss The Lorax This is a story of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Over the past 100 million years, dense forests grew to cover more than half the Earth. As humans began to flourish, we cleared the forests for our own uses. Today, rainforests the size of 20 football fields are cut down every minute. At this rate, we will have no rainforests left at the end of the century, according to NASA. What is a rainforest? A rainforest is an area of tall trees that gets 80 to 400 inches of rainfall a year. Also known as jungles, rainforests contain thick, tangled canopies of plants,…

It sounds like it might swallow up large parts of a major city, but Pando isn’t going to hurt anyone. It has been considered Earth’s oldest living organism (somewhere between 14,000 and 80,000 years old) and its heaviest (weighing in at 13 million pounds). Pando may also be the Earth’s largest (visible) organism. And . . . it’s dying Pando means, “I spread,” in Latin, and it’s a name that makes sense. It is a clonal colony of trees that are all growing from the same root system. Located in Fishlake National Forest in Utah, these trees easily create a colony because their roots produce offshoots. With the network of roots, the whole clonal family can share water and nutrients. Pando’s other name, the quaking aspen (or Populus tremuloides) also…

Redwood Forests Some of the world’s most amazing trees are the redwoods. They have been on Earth for millions of years, with ancestors that were alive at the time of the dinosaurs. People have always been amazed by their size and age. Because they have been protected, they continue to amaze us. Redwood forests consist of both redwood trees and giant sequoias, both with distinctive cinnamon-colored bark. The sequoia, known by its Latin name of Sequoia sempervirens, is Earth’s tallest tree. The giant sequoia, Sequoiadendron giganteum, is the most massive tree in the world. Redwoods like a particular kind of climate. They like humid, moist environments, like those found along the coasts of Northern California and Oregon. The fog there provides additional moisture that is trapped in the soil, so…

Cradle a whole clove in your hand and look at it closely. What does this remarkable spice remind you of? If you think it looks like a nail, then you have hit the nail right on the head. In fact, the words for clove and nail are the same in many languages. For example, the French word for nail is clou—very close to “clove”—and a clou de girofle, “nail of the clove tree.” Cloves are not really nails, of course. They are dried, unopened flower buds of the handsome clove tree, which at one time grew only in the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, of the East Indies (now Indonesia.) One of the most valuable and sought-after spices in the world, cloves are as useful in the medicine cabinet as they…

A forest is a fascinating place, filled with trees and a variety of interesting creatures, too. It is a mysterious spot, a land all its own, and it offers the potential for exciting adventures. But what exactly makes a forest a forest? It is not unusual that the words “forest” and “woods” are often swapped, either in conversation or in writing. Although the two areas are similar in some ways, they have distinct differences. For instance, a forest is at least 1.24 acres in size. In a forest, the trees are at least 16 feet tall. The tree canopy, which is the layer overhead where the tops of trees meet and form a shade, must cover at least 10 percent of the land below. In comparison, woods refer to an…

A winding path leads through stands of green bamboo, towering far above the heads of visitors. The gentle wind causes the bamboo stalks to sway, creating a gentle rustling, creaking sound that has been recognized by the Japanese government as an official “soundscape,” which is a sound particular to a specific place. The sunlight filters through the bamboo, creating a greenish golden light. This place feels magical, as if it belongs to another world. But just a short walk away is the bustle and noise of the city of Kyoto. The Arashiyama Bamboo Grove is one of the most popular places within Kyoto, and one of the most famous landscapes in the world. The Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, also known as the Sagano Bamboo Forest, has been a landmark in Kyoto…

Mangroves hug the coasts of tropical lands. The mangroves’ trees and bushes have adapted to live in the brackish waters near the shore. Like stilts, the roots of these trees hold the trunk and branches above the salty water. These roots twist and turn around each other creating knots that scientists call tangles. There are about 80 species of trees that form the dense thickets of a mangrove forest. Their thick, waxy leaves stockpile fresh water, much like cactus in deserts. This is another way mangrove plants flourish in a hostile environment. The mangrove forest ecosystem is crowded with animal life too. Many species of fish lay their eggs in the safety of the tangled roots. The roots prevent larger fish from entering and eating the tiny fish when they…