Temperate Rainforests
Know that not all rainforests are tropical — temperate rainforests exist in cooler, wet regions like the Pacific Northwest of North America, western Scotland and Wales, southern Chile, and New Zealand — with similar features (high rainfall, moss-draped trees, dense canopy) but different species, including ancient oaks, giant redwoods, and tree ferns
What a learner can do afterwards
- Name at least two locations of temperate rainforests, such as the Pacific Northwest, western Scotland, or southern Chile
- Compare temperate and tropical rainforests: both have high rainfall and dense canopy, but differ in temperature and species
- Name species found in temperate rainforests, such as ancient oaks, giant redwoods, or tree ferns
The lesson
When you hear the word rainforest, you probably picture hot air, thick jungle, and monkeys swinging through the trees. That's a tropical rainforest. But rain and thick forest can also grow in cool places. Those cooler, wetter forests are called temperate rainforests.
Temperate rainforests grow in cool, wet parts of the world. You can find them along the Pacific Northwest coast of North America, in western Scotland and Wales, in southern Chile, and in New Zealand. All of these places get heavy rain, but their winters are cold, not hot.
In a temperate rainforest in Wales, you might walk past an ancient oak tree covered in moss. In the Pacific Northwest, giant redwoods can tower taller than a building. In New Zealand, tree ferns unfurl their fronds in the damp shade. None of these plants live in a hot tropical rainforest.
When you picture a rainforest, check the temperature first. Dripping and mossy but cool? That's temperate. Steamy and full of parrots and monkeys? That's tropical. Both are rainforests, just in different climates.
Rainforests aren't only tropical: cool, misty temperate rainforests grow in places like the Pacific Northwest, Wales, and Chile, with oaks, redwoods, and tree ferns instead of monkeys and parrots.
Watch it
Where it sits
This opens up
Nothing builds on it yet.
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.