47 forest plants from A-Z

Forests in this country are mostly so-called commercial forests, the trees are used as construction timber for houses and furniture or as firewood. It is often forgotten that this is an amazing ecosystem that is home to many different flowering and green plants (and animals too). But not every forest is the same, it is not just the trees that vary, but all the plants in the forest.

How are forest plants classified?

On the one hand, forests are divided into deciduous, mixed and coniferous forests according to the type of trees they have. Other forest plants can also be classified according to their height. If you look at the forest like a house, the root area forms the basement, so to speak, in which various animals live, green plants are not to be found there. The ground layer forms the ground floor. Lichen, moss and mushrooms (probably the most commonly consumed plants in the forest) grow here. The first floor with numerous types of plants is called the herb layer. It is about 1.50 meters high. Herbs, grasses, ferns and flowering plants can be found here. The shrub layer, the second floor, is very species-rich, with a height of up to five meters. The tree layer forms the top floor.

Growth of the soil layer

The soil usually has a lot more life than meets the eye. In addition to insects and microorganisms, you can also find beautiful forest plants here on the forest floor.

Mosses

Cypress or sleeping moss(Hypnum cupressiforme)

• In the past it was often dried and used as a pillow filling
• very rich in shape and variable in appearance

Gooseneck star moss(Mnium hornum)

• 2 to 5 cm high
• likes to spread like a lawn

mushrooms

Fly agaric(Amanita muscaria)

• toxic, intoxicant
• in deciduous and coniferous forests
• like with birch and spruce trees

Death cap mushroom(Amanita phalloides)

• deadly poisonous
• in deciduous forests

Chestnut boletus(Boletus badius)

• edible
• preferred in coniferous forests (spruce and pine)

chanterelle(Cantharellus cibarius)

• edible
• mossy soils in deciduous and coniferous forests

mushroom(Boletus edulis)

• edible
• in deciduous and coniferous forests

Forest mushrooms(Agaricus silvaticus)

• edible
• in coniferous forests, preferably with spruce trees

Tip: Only collect mushrooms that you know really well, many edible varieties have an inedible or even poisonous counterpart. You can deepen your knowledge and learn a lot about mushrooms at special mushroom seminars.

Low flowering plants

Elven flower, Sock flower (Epimedium)

• Height: 20 to 35 cm
• Leaves: ovate to ovate-lanceolate, serrate edge, basal or distributed on the stem
• Blossoms: white, yellow or pink, delicate, four-fold
• Flowering time: Early summer

Common hazel root, Witch smoke, envy herb, glandular herb (Asarum europaeum)

• Location: preferred in deciduous and mixed forests
• Leaves: rounded to kidney-shaped, hairy underside
• Blossoms: Jug-shaped, brown-red, with 3 lobes
• Flowering time: March to May
• Particularities: evergreen, smells slightly peppery

Wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella)

• Location: preferably in mixed and coniferous forests
• Height: 5 to 15 cm
• Leaves: grass-green, three-part, clover-like pinnate, taste sour
• Blossoms: white or pink
• Flowering time: April to June

Vegetation on the herb layer

Not only are many creatures hiding here, but also many plants in the forest. If you go for a walk in the forest with your eyes open, you will discover a lot.

Grasses

Wire Schmiele(Deschampsia flexuosa)

• Sweet grass
• grows on acidic and poor soils

Common quaking grass(Briza media)

• Sweet grass
• poor soil
• can be found in clearings

Ferns

(Forest) lady fern(Athyrium filix-femina)

• summer green
• 30 cm to 1 m long fronds

Common thorn fern(Dryopteris carthusiana)

• up to 90 cm long fronds

Real worm fern(Dryopteris filix-mas.)

• until winter green
• 30 cm to 1 m long fronds

Flowering plants

Heather, Heather, (Calluna vulgaris)

• Location: prefers light (pine) forests, heather landscape
• Height: 30 cm to 1 m
• Leaves: small, leathery, adjoining scaly
• Blossoms: dense racemose inflorescences with white, pink or purple flowers
• Flowering time: Late summer to autumn
• Particularities: evergreen dwarf shrub, woody

Blueberry, Blueberry, bickberry, cranberry (Vaccinium myrtillus)

• Location: in pine and mixed forests
• Height: Dwarf shrub, 10 to 60 cm
• Leaves: grass green, 2 to 3 cm long, ovate to elliptical, slightly serrate to finely serrated
• Blossoms: greenish to reddish
• Flowering time: April May
• Fruit: Black-blue berries maximum 1 cm in size, standing individually, slightly flattened, edible

Red thimble, Foxwort, forest bells (Digitalis purpurea)

• Location: prefers light coniferous forest
• Height: up to 2 m high
• Leaves: basal leaf rosette in the first year, later basal leaves up to 20 cm long
• Blossoms: red-purple flowers in racemose inflorescences
• Flowering time: June to August, only in the second year
• Particularities: Even in small quantities, deadly poisonous in all parts of the plant!

Smelly hellebore(Helleborus foetidus)

• Location: Oak and beech forests, forest edges, like slightly calcareous soil
• Height: until about. 60 cm
• Leaves: unpleasant smelling
• Blossoms: light green, occasionally with a slightly reddish edge, in clusters, hanging, appear as early as autumn
• Flowering time: late winter, early spring
• Particularities: Subshrub, poisonous

Dead nettle(Lamium)

• Height: 20 to 80 cm
• Leaves: opposite, hairy, bluntly notched to roughly toothed
• Blossoms: Lips, domed upper lip, multi-lobed lower lip, white, yellow, pink to purple
• Flowering time: depending on the variety from April to the first frost

Forest goat's beard(Aruncus dioicus)

• Height: 80 cm to 1.5 m
• Leaves: leaves up to 1 m long, two to three times three or five parts, sharply toothed
• Blossoms: white, small, panicley, spiked partial inflorescences on overhanging overall inflorescences
• Flowering time: June to July

Forest white root, Multi-flowered Weisswurz (Polygonatum multiflorum)

• Height: usually 30 to 60 cm, rarely up to 1 m
• Leaves: Upper side dark green, underside gray-green frosted, alternate, two-lined, egg-shaped to elliptical, 5 to 17 cm long
• Blossoms: white with green tips, 6 to 7 mm long, odorless, racemose inflorescences with 3 to 5 flowers
• Flowering time: May to June
• Fruit: dark blue to black berries, frosted, 7 to 9 mm in size
• Particularities: poisonous in all parts of the plant

Overgrowth on the shrub layer

The shrub layer is usually more pronounced in sparse forests, but almost not to be found in dark coniferous forests. Forest edges and clearings are particularly rich in species.

Blackberries(Rubus sectio rubus)

• in sparse forests

hazelnut(Corylus avellana)

• in sparse forests, at the edges of the forest

Raspberries(Rubus idaeus)

• at the edges of the forest and in clearings

Dog rose(Rosa canina)

• in sparse forests and on the edges of forests

Blackthorn(Prunus spinosa)

• at the edges of the forest
• is considered a butterfly plant

Black elder(Sambucus nigra)

• on forest clearings
• unripe berries are poisonous
• Ripe ones should only be consumed heated

Rowanberry(Sorbus aucuparia)

• small apple-like fruits
• important food crop for many animals
• in all forests, preferably on the edge of the forest

Hawthorn(Crataegus)

• in sparse deciduous and pine forests
• edible fruits

The tree layer

The tree layer is formed by the various deciduous and coniferous trees, arguably the most important plants in the forest. You can find mainly spruce and beech trees, but also pines, firs, oaks, maples and larches and, increasingly, Douglas firs.

Domestic conifers

Douglas fir(Pseudotsuga menziesii)

• foreign conifers (is cultivated for forestry in Europe)
• up to 50 m high
• Crown: conical, similar to the spruce
• Tribe: cylindrical, straight
• Bark: smooth, gray, with resin bumps, later reddish to dark brown, thick bark, deeply fissured
• Needles: soft, top green, bottom with 2 light stripes, flat, aromatic fragrance
• Cones: 5 to 10 cm long, pendulous, light brown

Spruce(Picea abies)

• up to 50 m high
• Crown: slender, conical
• Tribe: columnar
• Bark: gray-brown to red-brown, thin-scaly
• Needles: dark green, square, sitting around the branch
• Cones: hanging, 10 to 16 cm long

jaw(Pinus sylvestris)

• up to 40 m high
• Crown: umbrella-like
• Tribe: mostly straight
• Bark: Thick gray-brown bark at the bottom, thin, red-yellow and flaky at the top
• Needles: 3 to 7 cm long, on short shoots, blue to gray-green
• Cones: egg-shaped, gray-brown, short-stemmed

larch(Larix decidua)

• up to 50 m high
• Crown: slightly conical
• Bark: deeply furrowed, gray-brown, red inside
• Needles: soft, light green, in clusters on short shoots, golden yellow in autumn, needle-free in winter
• Cones: 3 to 4 cm long, ovate, brown, upright

(White) fir (Abies alba)

• up to 50 m high
• Crown: rather flattened, similar to a stork's nest
• Trunk: straight
• Bark: whitish to silver-gray, fine cracked
• Needles: underside with 2 white vertical stripes, upper side dark green, flat
• Cones: only in the top area, standing upright, 10 to 15 cm long

Native deciduous trees

Sycamore maple(Acer pseudoplatanus)

• up to 30 m high
• Bark: smooth, brownish gray, later flaking off in light brownish flat scales
• Leaves: long-stalked, opposite, 5-lobed (like 5 fingers), indented to a point
• Fruit: composed of 2 winged round nuts

Norway maple(Acer platanoides)

• up to 30 m high
• Bark: blackish, fine-cracked, not flaking
• Leaves: 5- to 7-lobed, blunt incision (round), serrated
• Fruit: composed of 2 winged plate nuts

Ash(Fraxinus excelsior)

• up to 40 m high, but mostly 15 to 20 m
• Crown: mostly light
• Tribe: long and straight
• Bark: first greenish, then gray to gray-brown, fissured
• Leaves: opposite, unpaired pinnate, mostly 11 saw-tooth leaflets
• Fruit: small winged nuts, mostly solitary, elongated, yellow-brown, in hanging, tufted panicles

Hornbeam(Carpinus betulus)

• up to 25 m high
• Tribe: strong indentations
• Bark: silver gray, smooth
• Leaves: two-line, alternate, pointed-egg-shaped, sharply double-serrated, folded along the parallel lateral nerves
• Fruit: small nuts, lonely, in loosely hanging kittens

European beech(Fagus sylvatica)

• up to 40 m high
• Tribe: long, straight
• Bark: smooth, silver-gray
• Leaves: alternate, two-line, smooth or slightly wavy edge
• Fruit: triangular beechnuts, glossy brown, prickly shell

English oak(Quercus robur)

• up to 35 m high
• Crown: irregular, loose
• Tribe: relatively short, branches early
• Bark: first silver-gray, smooth and shiny, from around 30. Year gray-brown and deeply fissured
• Leaves: alternately in clusters, 4 to 5 rounded lobes on both sides
• Fruit: cylindrical acorns, in bowl-shaped cups, 1 to 3 each on a long stalk

Sessile oak(Quercus petraea)

• up to 40 m high
• Crown: irregular
• Tribe: long
• Bark: first silver-gray, smooth and shiny, from around 30. Year gray-brown and deeply fissured
• Leaves: alternate, evenly distributed, 5 to 7 rounded lobes on both sides
• Fruit: cylindrical acorns, in cup-shaped cups, heaped in bunches (3 to 7) on a short stem

Special plants in the deciduous forest

So-called early bloomers can be found in many deciduous forests. They bloom in spring, before the trees start to fall and the thick foliage darkens the forest. Native early bloomers are a very important source of nutrition for insects as they provide the first nectar of the year.

Early flowering plants

Wild garlic, wild garlic, forest or dog garlic (Allium ursinum)

• preferred location: moist soils and beech forests
• Height: 20 to 30 cm
• Leaves: green, upper side a little darker than the underside, lanceolate, petiolate
• Blossoms: white, radially symmetrical flowers in flat mock umbels
• Flowering time: April to May
• Particularities: Edible wild vegetables, related to onions, chives and garlic, have a slightly garlic-like taste

Likelihood of confusion: Leaves can easily be confused with those of lily of the valley, the spotted arum (young leaves are unspotted) or the autumn crocus, these plants are highly poisonous!

Wood anemone(Anemone nemorosa)

• Height: 11 to 25 cm
• Leaves: stalked, finger-shaped, appear only after flowering
• Flowers: 6 to 8 petals, white, slightly pink on the outside, usually only one flower per plant, rarely 2
• Flowering period: March to April / May

Common butterbur(Petasites officinalis)

• Height: during flowering approx. 10 to 40 cm, later up to 1.20 m
• Leaves: Roundish, initially small with gray-woolly hairy underside, later up to 60 cm in diameter and smooth, similar to coltsfoot, but much larger
• Blossoms: numerous dense reddish-white to reddish-purple flowers, compound racemose inflorescence
• Flowering time: March to May

Celandine, figwort(Ficaria verna, Ranunculus ficaria L.)

• Height: 10 to 20 cm
• Leaves: undivided on long stalks, heart- to kidney-shaped
• Blossoms: yellow, star-shaped, 1.5 to 6 cm in diameter, standing individually
• Flowering time: March to May
• Particularities: poisonous in all parts, young leaves can be eaten as a weed before flowering

Woodruff, Fragrant bedstraw (Galium odoratum)

• Height: 5 to 50 cm
• Leaves: lively on the stem, narrow-elliptical or elongated-lanceolate, rough edge
• Blossoms: small and white, several flowers per plant, terminal inflorescence
• Flowering time: variable depending on the location, from around April to May or June
• Particularities: is used as a medicinal and aromatic herb, the main component of the woodruff punch

Plant species in the coniferous forest

In the coniferous forest, different plants sometimes grow than in the deciduous forest. Especially shade plants feel at home here. This is due to the low incidence of light, because most conifers have needles all year round. The only exception to the domestic conifers is the larch, which sheds its needles in autumn. In addition, the soil in coniferous forests is usually more acidic, the falling needles rot much more slowly than leaves, which means that the humus layer is also relatively thick. Wood sorrel, mosses and ferns can be found here, as well as red foxgloves and common heather in clear areas.