Tree Talk: O Tannenbaum

Posted 12/12/19

by Ned Barnard and Pauline Gray As you enjoy your Christmas tree this year, likely a fir or spruce or pine, regard it with great respect. It is a symbol of rebirth and immortality to many, but to …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Tree Talk: O Tannenbaum

Posted

by Ned Barnard and Pauline Gray

As you enjoy your Christmas tree this year, likely a fir or spruce or pine, regard it with great respect. It is a symbol of rebirth and immortality to many, but to botanists it is also a member of an ancient tribe of trees that first appeared 300 million years ago – cone-bearing trees, or conifers.

Conifers boast a host of characteristics that have made them incredibly successful.

Conifers are parsimonious. Many shed their needle-like leaves only slowly over several years, thus saving the energy that broadleaf trees put into producing an entirely new set of leaves annually.

Conifers are independent. Unlike many broadleaf flowering trees, they don’t rely on animals to pollinate them or to move their seeds from place to place. Conifers are reproductively profligate and fertile. Mature trees may release millions upon millions of pollen grains to ride on the wind, ensuring that almost all seed cones on adjacent trees are pollinated.

Conifers are persistent. Some are able to live for thousands of years on high, storm-swept mountainsides in poor soil where few other plants can survive.

Conifers are champions in the realm of trees. Besides growing older than any other trees, they also grow taller and bulkier. Conifers are the world’s most widespread trees, composing the greatest remaining stretches of wild forests on the planet, the immense boreal forests stretching across North American, Europe, and Asia.

Conifers are survivors. When powerful hurricanes down almost every other tree in sight, certain conifers remain upright; when fires sweep through forests, mature conifers may be protected by thick bark.

Conifers might also be survivors in a rapidly warming world. As permafrost melts in the Arctic, conifers likely will spread north and maintain or even increase their range.

tree-talk