The Forestry Commission was tougher to fight, but he took it on, lamenting not just the regimented planting of conifers for building but the dreary new broadleaf woods, where all the trees were the same age and too close together, blocking light.
Hardwoods are also known as broadleaf trees.
The designations softwood, hardwood, and broadleaf, however, are often imprecise.
Similarly, some broadleaf trees (tree heaths, Erica arborea, and some tamarisks) have narrower leaves than do those of certain conifers (Podocarpus).
The dense, layered stands of broadleaf evergreen trees are among the most luxuriant and diversified in the world.
But all coniferous forests, and the evergreen broadleaf trees of hot, dry zones, frequently develop conditions ideally suited to the spread of fire through standing trees.
In the eastern region, broadleaf forests receive almost 80 inches (200 centimeters) of annual rainfall and feature indigenous oaks and maples with orchids and ferns in the understory.
Few evergreen broadleaf trees have high timber value, and many are little more than scrub, highly inflammable during hot, dry summers.
A fairly common species in North America is the broadleaf arrowhead (S. latifolia), used frequently in pond restorations to improve feeding areas for birds.
Typical trees are the evergreen oaks, species of Quercus, and the madrone, or Arbutus, while in Australia most evergreen broadleaf trees are species of Eucalyptus.
The broomrapes (Orobanche and Phelipanche species) attack broadleaf crops in the Mediterranean and Middle East and are a major constraint to the production of legumes, oilseed crops, and solanaceous crops (e.g., tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and eggplants).
