The bottomland hardwood forest is a type of

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, ...

and

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, whic ...

hardwood forest found in broad lowland floodplains along large rivers and lakes in the United States and elsewhere. They are occasionally flooded, which builds up the

alluvial Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. ...

soils required for the gum, oak and bald cypress trees that typically grow in this type of

biome A biome () is a biogeographical unit consisting of a biological community that has formed in response to the physical environment in which they are found and a shared regional climate. Biomes may span more than one continent. Biome is a broader ...

. The trees often develop unique characteristics to allow submergence, including cypress knees and fluted trunks, but can not survive continuous flooding. Typical examples of this forest type are found throughout the Gulf Coast states, and along the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...

in the United States. It is estimated there were in the region before foresting and farming reduced it to approximately today.

References

{{coord , 31, N, 89, W, type:forest_region:US_scale:2000000, display=title Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests in the United States Forest ecology