Natural Vegetation of Toronto: Temperate Deciduous Forest and Wetlands

Pre-settlement Toronto sat in the Temperate Deciduous Forest Zone. The natural cover was a mosaic of:

Upland Forests

• Dominant trees: Sugar maple, white oak, red oak, white ash.
• Understory: Flowering dogwood, viburnums, witch-hazel, hazelnut.
• Spring ephemerals: Trilliums, bloodroot, trout lily.

Wetlands & Ravines

• Cattails, sedges, rushes, bulrushes in marshes.
• Willows, alders, red osier dogwood along streams.
• Vernal pools supporting amphibians.

Today, High Park, Rouge Park, and the Don Valley retain fragments. Restoration efforts reintroduce native species and remove invasives (Norway maple, buckthorn, phragmites).