The French national forest inventory takes information on more than 190 different tree species, and 142 broad-leaved trees !
A main species is the tree species whose canopy is covering the highest area on the stand, on the considered plot. The main species covering the French territory are oaks, beech, Maritime pine, Scots pine, Silver fir or Norway spruce. They are precisely distributed all over the territory :
Among them, a list of tree species specifically used for wood production has been established by the French NFI:
| Ash | Alder | Aspen | Beech |
| Birch | Wild cherry or gean | Chesnut-tree | Dogwood |
| Elm | Eucalyptus | Evergreen oak | Hackberry-tree |
| Hornbeam | Red oak | Willow or sallow | Green alder |
| Hazel | Laburnum | Norway maple, sycomore maple | Small maple |
| Cork oak | Pedunculate oak | Pubescent oak | Pyrenean oak |
| Red oak | Sessile oak | Turkey oak | Ostrya |
| Cultivated poplar | Non cultivated poplar | Lime-tree | Locust tree |
| Olive-tree | Plane tree | Stranberry-tree | Tiluptree |
| Walnut tree | Wild service tree | Other fruit-tree | Other domestic broad-leaved |
| Other exotic broad-leaved |
| Atlas cedar | Lebanon cedar | Cypress | American fir |
| Mediterranean fir | Nordmann’s fir | Silver fir | French alpine juniper |
| Common Larch | Exotic larch | Douglas fir | Aleppo pine |
| Arolla pine | Black pine | Loblolly pine | Maritime pine |
| Mountain pine (pinus uncinata) | Mountain pine (pinus mughus) | Stone pine | Weymouth pine |
| Norway spruce | Sitka spruce | Other exotic conifer | Other domestic conifer |
| Yew |
