**What is it?**
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of United Nations defines a forest as a portion of land bigger than half a hectare (5 000m2) with trees or that can be higher than 5 meters and a tree canopy cover of more than 10 %
A tree is a perennial plant (it lives all year long) with roots, a trunk and a crown with branches.
The main feature of Boreal forests are coniferous trees. Boreal forests in northern Sweden are partially natural (primary forests) and partially the result of human intervention (secondary forests). Boreal soils are not very rich and present low temperatures and scarse rainfall during winter time.
The dominant forest type, known as western taïga, contains a mixture of Norwegian spruce (Picea abies) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris). These trees resist hard conditions (low temperatures and scarce rainfall).
This is a picea abies.
The structure of boreal forests is relatively simple: they have a sparse field layer of mosses, lichens and ericaceous shrubs on shallow soils. Where the soil is more fertile, the understory becomes carpeted in a rich assembly of herbaceous shrubs and bushes.
