ABSTRACT
Broadleaf trees, commercially marketed as hardwoods (though some species have soft woods), are deciduous trees (though several are evergreens). Botanically, these are angiosperms (the seeds are clothed, in contrast to the naked-seeded conifers called gymnosperms). Broadleaf trees exhibit two cotyledons when seeds germinate, while conifers extend many seed leaves (polycots) and grasses but a single seed leaf (monocots). Uplands of the region given to high-quality stands of broadleaf trees, in addition to the Iron Range, include the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the Green Mountains of Vermont, the Adirondacks of New York, and the Allegheny zone of the Appalachians in West Virginia. Northwestern Pennsylvania’s rolling hills, much of which is in the Allegheny National Forest, is especially important for its fine stands of wild black cherry. The Adirondack Mountains of New York became embroiled in political controversy over the attempted eradication of the palette of autumn colors, exhibited by broadleaf trees, in favor of commercially desirable conifers.
