Plants living in the taiga are adapted for

Taiga plant life is much less diverse, as compared to the rainforests and other such biomes. However, there are some plants and trees that are commonly found to grow in this place and they have some adaptations that help them to survive the weather conditions. If you take a look at the taiga plants, you can find out that most of them are coniferous trees, like, jack pine, white spruce, Douglas fir, etc. These coniferous trees have needle-like leaves with waxy coating. This coating protects the leaves from drying out in extreme cold. The trees being evergreen, do not lose the leaves during winter, so that they can start photosynthesis, as soon as they receive sunlight. It is also said that the dark green color of the leaves enables the trees to fasten the process of photosynthesis.

There are some deciduous trees in taiga, like, birch, poplar, and aspen. These trees have broad leaves that are shed during winter, so as to prevent energy loss during the season. New leaves appear on them during spring. Another taiga plant adaptation is their conical shape, that allows the snow to slide down to earth. This prevents accumulation of snow over the trees and the resultant breaking of branches. It has also been observed that these trees grow in large areas and are very close to one another. This gives them protection from wind and cold. Wildfires being common in taiga, the trees have very thick and hard bark for protection. The fires may destroy the upper thin portion of these trees, but, this enables the sunlight to reach the ground and cause the growth of new taiga plants.