What is the difference between deciduous and coniferous?

Question

What is the difference between them?

In terms of plants, and different lands?

Answer 1

Deciduous plants lose their leaves for part of the year. In colder lands, leaf loss coincides with winter. In warmer lands, such as tropical, subtropical and arid lands, deciduous plants may lose their leaves during dry seasons or during times when there are changes in rainfall.

Coniferous plants keep their leaves year round. Most plants in tropical rain forests keep their leaves all year, gradually replacing them as they fall with age. Fewer plants are green year-round in cooler climates, but conifers are dominant when the climate becomes too cold for broad-leafed plants.

Whereas deciduous plants lose their leaves as an adaptation to cold or dry seasons, coniferous plants keep their leaves year round as an adaptation to low nutrient levels (so that they don't have to expend nutrients in the creation of new leaves).

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

Coniferous refers to a group of gymnosperms that produce cones such as pines, spruces, larches, and redwoods to name a few of the common ones.

Deciduous means trees that loose all of their leaves in a short time, like in the fall.  Examples include common trees like most oaks, maples, and larches.  The opposite of deciduous is evergreen, the common of which are many coniferous plants.  There are even evergreen oaks--live oaks in the southern states.

Note that larches are conifers that are deciduous.