Forests and Jungles

In Felarya we tend to confuse the two terms quite a lot, often interchanging forest and jungle rather carelessly. Felarya certainly has quite it's share of both, but I think people should know the difference between the two, because they are actually, in fact, quite different from each other.

Some of you probably know this already, but I figured this is important enough of a distinction and a mistake to make this thread about it.

First off, Forests are cooler, and Jungles are typically hotter. This is not only because jungles are situated in tropical areas, but also because of how they keep heat. Anyone ever heard of a cool jungle? A jungle has a lot of plant life really close together, including trees, bushes, ferns, vines all sorts. The basic idea is that the sun shines down on top of the trees, and the heat is trapped under the canopies. Where as in a forest, even though trees can be quite close together, they are often in clumps. One clump over there, followed by a tiny open space, followed by another large clump. etc. Sunlight can shine down through the canopies, unlike in a jungle. Yes, for those of you who didn't know, sunlight cannot penetrate jungles effectively. There are occasional streams of light that keep the place bright enough to see, but for the most part is blocked out.

Jungles are also in smaller patches, found at the edges of forests. A jungle wont randomly appear in the middle of a forest just because the forest is extra dense. Jungles have specific plants that are more dense, and generally smaller than forest trees. They need a humid, warm area.

Forests can be any density, they grow everywhere including a hot or humid environment. The plant life is less dense on average, and also much taller. Forests contain all types of trees but not many varieties of trees are found in a single forest.

This brings to mind certain areas of the Felarya map. Would the Grove of Carnivorous plants be considered a forest or a Jungle? What makes the Jungle of Perils a jungle other than its name? Personally I'm not sure if it is humid or hot enough to be one, being right next to a massive river, but often the wetter a jungle is, the more humid it is, and water has very little effect on cooling it down (I think).

Felarya doesn't have an equator or an axis. There isn't any particular point that receives more sun than another spot. So what does this mean for jungles? Would Felarya actually be one big jungle? or one big forest. If there's a volcano nearby, and it's constantly erupting, then there might be a jungle around it due to the heat. Does all of felarya take heat from one sun? or do different areas take heat from different suns, or a place where the sun is bigger and hotter, or the planet is closer to the sun?

The part of the Jewel River where the Jungle is might open up a bit more in reality, and have a pretty long beach all around it's edge with tropical waters.

So there you have it. The main difference is density, humidity, size of plants, and global placement.

Bool story Cro.
I think that may be one of the things about Felarya for which we generally just suspend disbelief since it's a minor issue anyway. As far as I can tell Felarya generally has a sort of mixed jungle/rainforest/forest biome covering most of it, perhaps more or less jungley in places depending on lake effect winds and humidity and so forth.
I'm all for educating the populace, so thanks for putting this up, but why, I might ask, did you feel the need to announce this now?

Because I just did. There wasn't any specific catalyst for it, it just came to mind really.

Besides, it does concern the placement of regions and such. I'm actually unsure whether the Grove of Carnivorous Plants is - actually never mind. I asked quite a few question in there, so if people want to answer them they can't be lazy about it. Aren't I mean?

I'm with bael here.
This is actually a legitimate question as it's actually relevant. Jungles look different to forests, they do have different properties that are relevant to story-writing and visual art. Even if we forget about the mechanics, it's really worth knowing if, indeed, the Jungle of Perils is an actual jungle.

Mhh that's an interesting point. and indeed I didn't made too much distinction between the two.
But there is clearly much more jungle than forest in Felarya. Tolmeshal is basically one immense jungle, as well as Chidokai and the jungle of perils. Zones like the forest of whispers or deeper Felarya are more like thick forests.

Maybe Felarya has its own biome that has properties of both a jungle and a non-jungle forest. Since most of the trees are much taller than on Earth, they might produce a unique greenhouse effect so that at different layers of the forest the temperature and humidity are different, and the plants have different densities and species distributions.