Europe Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Flora=== [[File:Europe land use map.png|thumb|upright=1.2|left|Land use map of Europe with arable farmland (yellow), forest (dark green), pasture (light green) and tundra, or bogs, in the north (dark yellow)]] Having lived side by side with agricultural peoples for millennia, Europe's animals and plants have been profoundly affected by the presence and activities of humans. With the exception of [[Fennoscandia]] and northern Russia, few areas of untouched wilderness are currently found in Europe, except for various [[national park]]s. The main natural vegetation cover in Europe is mixed [[forest]]. The conditions for growth are very favourable. In the north, the [[Gulf Stream]] and [[North Atlantic Current|North Atlantic Drift]] warm the continent. Southern Europe has a warm but mild climate. There are frequent summer droughts in this region. Mountain ridges also affect the conditions. Some of these, such as the [[Alps]] and the [[Pyrenees]], are oriented east–west and allow the wind to carry large masses of water from the ocean in the interior. Others are oriented south–north ([[Scandinavian Mountains]], [[Dinaric Alps|Dinarides]], [[Carpathian Mountains|Carpathians]], [[Apennine Mountains|Apennines]]) and because the rain falls primarily on the side of mountains that is oriented towards the sea, forests grow well on this side, while on the other side, the conditions are much less favourable. Few corners of mainland Europe have not been grazed by [[livestock]] at some point in time, and the cutting down of the preagricultural forest habitat caused disruption to the original plant and animal ecosystems. [[File:Floristic regions in Europe (english).png|upright=1.2|thumb|Floristic regions of Europe and neighbouring areas, according to Wolfgang Frey and Rainer Lösch]] Possibly 80 to 90 percent of Europe was once covered by forest.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.saveamericasforests.org/europages/history&geography.htm|title=History and geography|publisher=Save America's Forest Funds|access-date=9 June 2008|archive-date=6 October 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081006131242/http://www.saveamericasforests.org/europages/history%26geography.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> It stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Arctic Ocean. Although over half of Europe's original forests disappeared through the centuries of [[deforestation]], Europe still has over one quarter of its land area as forest, such as the [[Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest|broadleaf and mixed]] forests, [[taiga]] of Scandinavia and Russia, mixed [[rainforest]]s of the Caucasus and the [[Cork oak]] forests in the western Mediterranean. During recent times, deforestation has been slowed and many trees have been planted. However, in many cases monoculture [[plantation]]s of [[Pinophyta|conifers]] have replaced the original mixed natural forest, because these grow quicker. The plantations now cover vast areas of land, but offer poorer habitats for many European forest dwelling species which require a mixture of tree species and diverse forest structure. The amount of natural forest in Western Europe is just 2–3% or less, while in its Western Russia its 5–10%. The European country with the [[List of countries by forest area|smallest percentage of forested area]] is [[Iceland]] (1%), while the most forested country is Finland (77%).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mcpfe.net/system/files/u1/publications/pdf/state_of_europes_forests_2007.pdf |title=State of Europe's Forests 2007: The MCPFE report on sustainable forest management in Europe |publisher=EFI Euroforest Portal |page=182 |access-date=9 June 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080624190612/http://www.mcpfe.net/system/files/u1/publications/pdf/state_of_europes_forests_2007.pdf |archive-date=24 June 2008 }}</ref> In temperate Europe, mixed forest with both [[flowering plant|broadleaf]] and coniferous trees dominate. The most important species in central and western Europe are [[beech]] and [[oak]]. In the north, the taiga is a mixed [[spruce]]–[[pine]]–[[birch]] forest; further north within Russia and extreme northern Scandinavia, the taiga gives way to [[tundra]] as the Arctic is approached. In the Mediterranean, many [[olive]] trees have been planted, which are very well adapted to its arid climate; [[Cupressus sempervirens|Mediterranean Cypress]] is also widely planted in southern Europe. The semi-arid Mediterranean region hosts much scrub forest. A narrow east–west tongue of Eurasian [[grassland]] (the [[steppe]]) extends westwards from [[Ukraine]] and southern Russia and ends in Hungary and traverses into taiga to the north. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. 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