coniferous trees in your city/town/metro

[Stumbler.]

Originally Posted by scottyr

Thanks for the replies, i'd love to hear more opinions about northern states, and how they compare to canadian areas at similar latitudes.

In Canada, once you get around the 49th parallel north all you get are pretty much the boreal forest ones (northern evergreens such as pine, larch, fir and spruce), aside from the few far northern deciduous trees as aspen/poplar and birch.

Deciduous trees or mixes of evergreens and deciduous trees are mainly in southern Ontario/southern Quebec which is lower down in the mid to low 40s parallel north. That's where trees with the fall foliage such as the maples are seen. The southern Ontario native vegetation (although little of it remains due to agriculture and population) grades into the forest type that's called the "eastern hardwoods" in the USA.

That should be the natural vegetation. Although city plantings don't always use native trees, it generally gives an idea of what could grow there.

[ckhthankgod]

There are plenty in Upstate NY...

[JWRocks]

Don't know if this would interest you, but in Rochester NY, there is a park (Durand- Eastman) along the shore of Lake Ontario that I understand has the largest variety of pine/evergreen/coniferous trees in one place in the world.

[davidals]

pines everywhere here, loblolly pines (huge) and longleaf pines especially. there are several other specific types of pine-relatives (various cedars, and - in the mountains - spruce) native to various parts of north carolina.

bald cypresses grow on the coast - they belong to the juniper family, and (thus) are basically swampy southern relatives of redwoods and sequoias, which is to say, they are unrelated to the pine family, though they are coniferous. bald cypresses are almost as long-lived as redwoods and sequoias, and thus are a great way of studying climate records in the South.

redwoods, as non-natives, grow very well in parts of the US south, though they don't grow as tall. there are a couple towns in NC where I've seen them grown however, and even at half the size they attain in northern California, they are still very, very large. there's one near the town hall here in Chapel Hill.

[MN55]

A few people have mentioned Minnesota. Minnesota is unique in that all three regions - Deciduous, Coniferus, and Praire - all meet somewhere in the center of the state. The Twin Cities are predominantly deciduous while Duluth is practically all evergreens. If you drive on I35 from the Twin Cities to Duluth you can literally see the transition between the two regions. It happens between Hinckley and Sandstone.

[MN55]

Here's a map showing what I mean: