Forillon lies at the top of
the northernmost continental reaches of the
Appalachians, which extend southward as far
as Alabama. Barren of trees and covered in shale,
most peaks are about 900 metres with Mount St.
Jacques Cartier reaching 1320 metres. The mountainous
interior, with its wooded hills and valleys,
stretches back into the inner peninsula and
out to the steep edges of the sea to the north
and east. Erosion has smoothed the summits of
the mountains making them both spectacular and
accessible to hikers. At the tip of the Gaspe,
where mountains reach the sea, are a series
of multi-hued cliffs and plunging headlands
rising as 200 metre walls directly above the
sea. These sheer bluffs, gleaming over the ocean,
are formed from limestone which, over time,
has been broken down in places creating the
pebbled, crescent-shaped beaches that dot the
shoreline.
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Forest covers 95% of the park's
land area. On the higher elevations in the central
mountains are found coniferous boreal white
spruce, balsam fir and black spruce. In the
river glens and lowlands, sugar maple, white
pine and hemlock mix with oak, ash and cedar.
In all, a total of 63 forest vegetation communities
have been identified. The astonishing diversity
of its plant life can be in part attributed
to ten separate ecosystems: forest, cliffs,
alpine meadows, fallow fields, sand dunes, lakes,
streams, freshwater and saltwater marshes, and
the shore. The 696 plant species include the
rare arctic-alpine flora, which thrive on the
exposed cliff faces and talus slopes where other
plants cannot survive. The Penouille Peninsula,
a long sand spit reaching 1.5 kilometres into
the sea, is host to over 40 species of lichen.
On its inland edge, a rich salt marsh which
is always flooded, are species well-adapted
to the brackishness of the water and the action
of the tides: spartina, beachgrass and the rare
eelgrass that lives entirely underwater.
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