Christmas Firs Like the Warmth of a Fire
Posted by Science Oxford on December 16, 2011 | comments
Written by Alison Cooper
While you are sitting by a log fire this Christmas spare a thought for your Christmas tree. Whichever type you choose it is likely to belong to the Conifer family. Many types of confers actually need fire to reproduce. Flames from forest fires melt the resin in their cones so they can open and release the seeds. Managing these fires is a challenge for park rangers in North America.
In the UK and Europe, the Nordmann Fir has overtaken the Norway Spruce in the last 10 years to top the chart as Christmas Tree number one. Its popularity is believed to be due to its thicker waxy needles. They are slower to shed as the cut trees dehydrate in cosy living rooms across the country. They also make them well adapted for living with little water in their natural habitats in the mountains of Turkey and Russia, which are drier the Scandinavian climates where the Norway Spruce originates. Scot’s pine which is native to the UK has also has soft needles.
Nordmann Fir are grown in the UK in plantations. Currently forests grown for Christmas trees are not covered by timber certification standards and regulation. While it is not possible to guarantee your real wood tree is supplied from a sustainable source by looking for the relevant logos, you can recycle it. It will most likely be turned into woodchips which can be used for energy and chipboard, and the needles and branches unlike its synthetic imitations are fully biodegradable to become compost.
What do you think?