The Bottomland hardwood forest is a type of deciduous hardwood forest found in US broad lowland floodplains along large rivers and lakes. They are occasionally flooded, which builds up the alluvial soils required for the gum, oak and bald cypress trees that typically grow in this type of biome. 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 Gulf coast states, and along the Mississippi River in the United States. It is estimated there were 24,000,000 acres (97,000Â km2) in the region before foresting and farming reduced it to approximately 4,000,000 acres (16,000Â km2) today.
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