Palatinate Forest
The Palatinate Forest (, ), sometimes also called the Palatine Forest, is a low-mountain region in southwestern Germany, located in the Palatinate in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The forest is a designated nature park () covering 1,771 km and its highest elevation is the Kalmit (673 m).
Palatinate Forest
The beech is not only the most abundant tree species in the Palatinate Forest historically, but also today, with a current share of 35 percent. With the exception of the eastern mountain edge (the Haardt range), it is widely distributed on the acidic environment of the bunter sandstone soils and prefers shady slopes, high elevations and hollows. Often it forms varied mixed stands of trees together with softwoods, especially pine, but it is also found as stands in its own right (in so-called woodrush-beech woods), particularly in the central Palatinate Forest. Here it grows in large "beech cathedrals", which are seen by many visitors as an impressive feature of the Palatinate Forest.