80+ Forest Features For Fantasy Worldbuilding39 min read

Bark, blossom, bough, and burl! Welcome back, Outlander, to the 5th entry in Mythic Ecology, my series on how learning real-world landscape features can enrich our fantasy worldbuilding and storytelling. In this post I return to my minimalist framework for Dungeon Masters, Game Masters, fiction writers, and similar worldbuilders to merge the realms of general myth and geomorphology. Last entry we looked at rivers. As I resume my journey sketching a framework for designing Yridia, my unique D&D 5e fantasy world, let’s learn some forest terms, with a visual guide!

All the images herein I use for educational and entertainment purposes, I claim no rights to any of them. For corrections or content removal requests, hit my contact page.

In The Anatomy of Story (2007), John Truby identifies the Forest as a symbol reflecting a sort of binary archetype of awe and dread. On the one hand the benevolent woodlands, a natural cathedral, full of wisdom and contemplation. And on the other, the foreboding, labrynthine, slow deadliness of the the forest primeval. Likewise the jungle, a rather skewed trope from colonial discourse, invokes a feeling of suffocation, tropes of human as beast, and beasts surpassing humanity.

But as we’ll see, forests have enough diversity within them to cover many moods and themes. We’ll talk details, but for first let’s revisit my minimalist framework for my worldbuilding. The six archetype tags with which I will flag all the various real-world land features in my Mythic Ecology Series:

1. Settlements: habitable regions of either Work or Play, Familiar or Exotic, offering diverse narrative functions: a Day in the Life, Home Base, Personal Reasons, Gathering Supplies. Can subvert tropes with Ruins or Escape.
2. Omens: sensational, temporal, or particularly pointed features that offer narrative functions of forshadowing, and good or evil portents. Can subvert tropes with a Wild Goose Chase.
3. Overlooks: sites of magnitude and grandeur, living monuments which can function narratively for finding resolve, invoking spirits, or as a Call to Adventure. Can subvert tropes with Dread or Betrayal.
4. Passageways: transitional journeylands, including magical portals, functioning narratively for initiation and return, thresholds and tests, shortcuts and setbacks.
5. Abyss: a void or confined space presenting scarcity or temptation, desperation and danger. Can subvert tropes with a Timely Rescue or Secret Refuge.
6. Battlegrounds: sites fit for epic, sprawling encounters and climax conflicts. Can subvert tropes with Alternative Solutions.

Feel free to submit your own ideas, or draw outside the lines. Alright, let’s see how forests fit in.

Annual Ring – a tree cross-section featuring one earlywood layer (light-colored) and one latewood layer (dark-colored), representing a year of growth.
[Omens]

Bark – the hard substance that covers a tree.
[Omens] 

Blossom – a flower on a tree, or all the flowers on a tree.
[Omens]

Bole – the main trunk of a tree.
[Omens, Overlooks]

Bough – a big branch on a tree.
[Omens, Overlooks]

Branch – a part of a tree that grows out of its trunk with leaves, flowers, or fruit.
[Omens]

Catkin – a long soft group of small flowers that hangs from the branches of some trees.
[Omens]

Foliage – leaves of a tree or other plant.
[Omens]

Hollow – a natural semi-enclosed cavity in a tree trunk or branch.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss]

Knot – a round hard place in a piece of wood where a branch grew.
[Omens]

Lignotuber – a protective, woody swelling of a tree’s root crown, containing buds and starch.
[Omens]

Pitch / Resin – a solid or highly viscous plant substance which helps tree wounds scab over.
[Omens]

Root – the lower, non-leaf, nodeless part of a plants body, often below the soil (but sometimes aboveground or abovewater), which helps a plant with water, nutrients, and anchoring.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss]

Sap – a translucent, thin, watery, slightly amber-colored substance which transports water, nutrients, and hormones throughout a tree.
[Omens]

Twig – a very small thin branch from a tree or bush.

Fairy Ring – a naturally-occurring circle or arc of mushrooms; similar rings occur with some sequoia tree regrowth patterns.
[Omens, Passageways]

Forb – any herb other than grasses, sedges, or rushes.
[Omens]

Fungi – yeasts, mildews, molds, and mushrooms decomposing detritus.
[Omens]

Polypores – fruiting fungi which grow on trees. Subtype of Fungi.
[Omens]

Underground Stem – plant stems extending below soil, for food storage or new growth, including bulbs, corms, rhizomes, and tubers.

Vines – plant tendrils behaving as trailing or climbing stems or runners.
[Abyss]

Deciduous – trees which shed their leaves annually.
[Omens]

Evergreen – trees whose leaves shed gradually and stay green year-round.
[Omens]

Broadleaf / Hardwood – trees with broad, flat leaves of many shapes. Most often deciduous; most also have hard wood.
[Omens]

Conifer / Softwood – trees with needles or scalelike foliage and conelike fruit. Most often evergreen; most also have soft wood.
[Omens]

Deciduous Conifer – rare species of tree which form cones and sprout needles like conifer trees, yet change colors during Fall and have softer needles, shed annually like deciduous trees.
[Omens]

Forest Floor – contains decomposing leaves and needles, animal droppings, fallen trees. Decay becomes soil, feeding ferns, flowers, fungi, grasses, and tree seedlings. Relatively clear of vegetation because of low sunlight, unless near a riverbank, swamp, or clearing.
[Settlements, Passageways, Battlegrounds]

Understory Layer – relatively open but dark layer of young trees, bushes, shrubs, snags, and leafy herbaceous plants, supports terrestrial fauna and with waterways or clearings can become thicket.
[Passageways, Abyss]

Canopy Layer – holds the majority of the biodiversity, marked by tall trees and overlapping treetop connected by branches, twigs, leaves, vines, mosses, and lichens, supporting various animals.
[Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss]

Emergent Layer – features giant crowned trees which soar above the canopy and experience high sunlight, temperatures, and winds, but lower humidity.
[Omens, Overlooks]

Snag Forest / Complex Early Seral Forest – marked by standing limbless or leafless trees, these develop after a natural stand-replacing disturbance like wildfire or insect outbreaks, but before a closed canopy returns, and support rich biodiversity from remaining biomass and habitat variation.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss]

Old Growth – develops over a long period without catastrophic disturbance, featuring multiple ages of trees, including very tall trees, as well as large dead standing trees, and fallen ones.
[Omens, Overlooks, Passageways]

Secondary Growth – develops as recovery from large scale tree extraction, with reduced biodiversity compared to Snag Forests because of reduced nutrients, structure, and water retention.
[Omens, Passageways]

Copse – a small group of trees, especially trees cut down to stools (living stumps) which can produce shoots for periodic harvest as multiple, smaller wood regrowth segments.
[Omens, Passageways, Battlegrounds]

Grove – a small group of trees with minimal or no undergrowth.
[Settlements, Omens, Passageways, Battlegrounds]

Hammock – stands of trees, usually hardwood, forming an ecological island in a contrasting ecosystem (e.g. prairie, marsh, sand dune).

[Settlements, Omens, Passageways, Abyss]

Stand – a group of trees of similar species, age, and condition, perceivable as a unit.
[Settlements, Omens, Passageways]

Thicket – a very dense stand of trees or tall shrubs, often with minimal diversity.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss]

Tropical Forests have two seasons: wet and dry. Consistent sunlight and temperature, and abundant rainfall. Little fertile soil, but highest biodiversity.

Monsoon Season – seasonal wind reversal brings a wet season, often with significant rains.
[Omens]

Tropical Evergreen Rainforest – rain year-round, no dry season.
[Settlements, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf / Seasonal / Semi-Evergreen / Monsoon Rainforest – short dry season, some seasonal variation with deciduous upper tree story and evergreen lower tree story. Contains Montane, Laurel, and Flooded subtypes.
[Settlements, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Montane / Cloud Forest – most precipitation from mist or fog that rises, mostly conifers. Subset of Monsoon Rainforest.
[Settlements, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Laurel Forests – characterized by broadleaf trees with glossy, elongated, evergreen leaves, found in areas with high humidity and relatively stable, mild temperatures. Subset of Montane / Cloud Forests.
[Settlements, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Flooded Forests – waterlogged forests, including freshwater swamps and peat swamp forests mentioned in Part 2: Wetlands. Subset of Monsoon Rainforest.
[Settlements, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Tropical & Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests – long dry season in which trees lose leaves.
[Settlements, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Tropical & Subtropical Coniferous Forests – dry and warm climate with conifers adapted to variable weather.
[Settlements, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Temperate Forests have four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Sunlight, temperature, and rainfall vary. Much fertile soil.

Spring Season
[Omens]

Summer Season
[Omens]

Fall Season
[Omens]

Winter Season
[Omens]

Moist Coniferous & Evergreen Broadleaf Forest – mild wet winters and dry summers.
[Settlements, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Dry Coniferous Forest – at higher elevations; little rainfall except in winter.
[Settlements, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Mediterranean Forest – south of temperate coastal regions, with dry summers and rainy winters; almost all trees evergreen.
[Settlements, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Temperate Broadleaf Rainforest – mild, frost-free winters, lots of rain throughout the whole year, evergreen.
[Settlements, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Boreal Forests, also called Taiga, have two seasons: a short, moist, mildly-warm summer, and a long, cold, dry winter. Precipitation often comes as snow. Minimal soil.

Summer Season
[Omens]

Winter Season
[Omens]

Closed Canopy Boreal Forest – southernmost taiga, with trees closely-spaced, and mossy groundcover; clearings may have shrubs and wildflowers.
[Settlements, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Lichen Woodland / Sparse Taiga – northernmost taiga, with trees farther-spaced (often stunted too), and lichen groundcover.
[Settlements, Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Mangrove / Mangal – coastal swamps featuring mangroves, a shrub or small tree in saline or brackish water, where fine sediment, often high in organic matter, collects in areas protected from strong waves. Discussed in Part 2: Wetlands.
[Omens, Overlooks, Passageways]

Savanna – mixed woodland and grassland with widely spaced trees and thus no closed canopy, supporting grasses.
[Settlements, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Sclerophyllous Dry Forest – forest emphasizing heat-resistant vegetation bearing hard leaves of short intervals between one another, and leaf orientation parallel or oblique to direct sunlight.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss]

Thorn Forest – dry subtropical and warm temperate areas with short, thorny, deciduous trees and some rainfall; grades into savanna woodland with more rainfall and desert with less.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss]

Woodland / Woodlot – low-density forest with plenty of open habitat and sunlight.
[Settlements, Passageways, Battlegrounds]

Certain tree species and rare forest types deserve extra attention for fantasy worldbuilding considerations because they show interesting possibilities already in the real world to draw upon and enhance.

Baobob Forests – marked by arid-adapted trees with massive swollen trunks.
[Settlements, Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Bamboo Forests – comprised of tall bamboo.
[Overlooks, Passageways]

Dragon’s Blood Forests – marked by an evergreen tree with upturned, densely packed crowns shaped like umbrellas.
[Omens, Passageways]

Jungle – colloquially, tropical rainforests with dense overgrowth like vines, and more predatory fauna; more of a trope from colonial discourse than an official term.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss]

Giant Redwood Forests – marked by a tree species which can grow to colossal size and age.
[Omens, Overlooks, Passageways]

Grapetree Forests – marked by a tree species which grows grapefruit directly on its trunk.
[Settlements, Passageways]

Kapok Forests – marked by a tree species which grows massive thorns from its trunk.
[Omens]

Rainbow Eucalyptus Forests – marked by a eucalyptus tree species which develops rainbow-hued bark.
[Omens, Passageways]

Spider Tree Forests – feature trees overrun with spiderwebs, often from spiders fleeing floods.
[Omens, Passageways, Abyss]

Tetrameles Forests – marked by tree species capable of gigantic size and overgrowth.
[Settlements, Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss]

Burl / Burr – round tree growth deformation on a knotted trunk or branch.
[Omens]

Crooked Trees – mysteriously crooked pine trees.
[Omens, Passageways]

Drunken Trees / Tilted Trees – a stand of trees displaced from normal vertical alignment, often from frost heaving of soil.
[Omens, Passageways]

Gall – abnormal outgrowths formed by swelling, pathological tissue caused by various infections or infestations.
[Omens]

Geoxyle / Underground Trees – a tree with an enlarged, woody structure underground, adapted to both flooding and wildfires.
[Omens]

Snag – a dead or dying tree.
[Omens]

Witch’s Broom – a parasitic tree deformity where a dense mass of shoots grows from a single point, resulting in a broom-like or nest-like structure.
[Omens]

Windsnap – trees broken at the trunk by wind.
[Omens]

Windthrow / Blowdown – trees uprooted by wind.
[Omens]

Earlywood / Springwood – lighter-colored, softer, more porous wood cells from the beginning of a tree’s growing season. [Omens]

Latewood / Summerwood – darker-colored, harder, less porous wood cells from late in a tree’s growing season. [Omens]

Heartwood – the darker, central core of a tree, made up of dense, dead wood, which provides strength. [Omens]

Sapwood – the lighter, outer rim of a tree, made up of living wood, which transports water and minerals. [Omens]

I hope you enjoyed this fifth entry in my Mythic Ecology series! I look forward to continuing with it, I have some greater ambitions for developing this series into worldbuilding web tools. Give this a share if you liked it, and let me know in the comments if you have any feedback. I publish new posts on Tuesdays. In the meantime, I post original D&D memes and writing updates daily over on my site’s Facebook Page. Also, if you want to keep up-to-date on all my posts, check out my Newsletter Sign-Up to receive email notifications when I release new posts. A big thanks as always to my Patrons on Patreon, helping keep this project going: Anthony, Chris, Eric & Jones, Geoff, Jason, Rudy, and Tom. Thanks for your support!