Jungle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Jungle (disambiguation).
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Jungle refers usually to a dense forest in a hot climate, such as a tropical rainforest.
It originated from Persian word jangal. After the conquest of the Indian subcontinent by Persia's Nader Shah, Persian words found their way into local languages. Thus, the Persian word 'jangal' started being used by residents of India.
With the passage of time many languages of Indian subcontinent, including Indian English began using 'jungle' to refer to any wild, untended or uncultivated land, including forest, scrub, or desert landscapes.
Sometimes an urban environment can be called a jungle, as "concrete jungle".
The term may still be used in a technical context to describe the forest biome rainforest, a forest characterised by extensive biodiversity and densely tangled plants such as trees, vines, grasses, and also various roses. As a forest biome, "jungles" are present in both equatorial and tropical climatic zones, and are associated with preclimax stages of the rainforest.
Not all regions called "jungles" would qualify as "rain forests" because many would apply "jungle", to the forests of northern Thailand or southern Guangdong in China: but scientifically, these are "monsoon forests" and not "rain forests".
[edit] Jungles in art and literature
Many examples can be found in art and literature: the fanciful jungle paintings of Henri Rousseau, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, and Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
