December 26, 2001
Stillwater Gazette
Betsy Halden

Story of your Christmas tree

Many of us have decorated our homes with Christmas trees during the holidays. Many of us have spent time, energy, and thought selecting an attractive tree for the best site in our home. For many of us, the Christmas tree is an integral part of our holiday celebrations. Here is the story of your Christmas tree.

Trees are the kings of the plant kingdom. Your tree is related to the biggest, tallest, and oldest living things on earth. As kings of the plant kingdom, the tree is an appropriate focal point during the holiday season. Man has been on the earth for two million years or so. Evergreen trees have a history of more than 300 million years.

To appreciate the complexity of this ancient and wonderful plant look closely at your tree. Notice the buds. They are really miniature branches, already pointed in the direction they will grow. At the tip of the tree is the central terminal bud surrounded by side buds. The terminal bud will grow vertically. The side buds will be branches. All of the tree buds were formed last summer. The buds are covered by a wax or pitch that keeps the water out and protects the buds from inclement weather. Unless it becomes really cold.

Look at the newest branches on your tree. These branches grew this year from buds made last year. Where you find a cluster of buds, next year you will find a whorl of branches. The distance between the whorls of branches is the amount of height growth that tree had during one growing season. By counting the number of spaces between whorls of branches, down to the base of the tree, you can tell the age of the tree without looking at the growth rings on the trunk.

The needles of your Christmas tree are pointed. Some are sharply pointed like the spruces and pines. Others are more rounded like the balsam fir. Tree needles are highly specialized manufacturing plants. They combine water from the roots and air into a new wood material. Needless have canals on the inside. Some canals are filled with resin and seem to protect the needles from insects that don’t like the taste. Resin is difficult to see, but you know it’s there because you smell it when you crush an evergreen needle. Tiny as the needles are, water moves through them. The trunk of your tree has grown in thickness by adding new layers of wood. If you make a fresh cut at the bottom of your tree it will absorb water more efficiently. Look at the newly cut trunk. Do you see rings? These are annual growth rings. Each year corresponds to a year of the tree’s life. The widest rings indicate a very good growing season.

Wood fiber is made as the needles make food. Each tree has its own special pattern or arrangement of wood fiber. You can see the wood fiber of trees if you tear a newspaper roughly to get a jagged edge. You will be able to see the tiny fibers that are the building blocks of the paper industry. The trunk, each twig, each branch and root, is really a collection of these tiny fibers held together with a sort of glue, called lignin.

The best way to fireproof a Christmas tree is to keep the needles filled with water. Your tree will do this if you keep the base of the tree in a container of water and never let the container run dry while you have the tree in the house. This year our fall was dry. Many trees were cut in late October, early November for shipping to tree lots. Some homeowners are reporting that their tree is not taking up water. If your tree seems unusually dry, you may want to take it down so it does not become a fire hazard.

The December Yard & Garden Line contains an article on “Christmas Trees, an ‘Important ‘Crop’ in Minnesota” and on “Poinsettia, The Houseplant that Won’t Quit.” You can access the Yard & Garden Line at www.extension.umn.edu, click on Garden and scroll down to Yard & Garden Line.

Betsy Halden is a Master Gardener with the University of Minnesota Extension Service. University of Minnesota Extension Service materials were consulted in the preparation of this column. You can reach Betsy Halden at eahalden@comcast.net