How to choose the perfect Christmas tree for your home

It’s time to take a deep breath and take stock of the plants in your life after running through around 480 million years of evolution, from Charophyte algae to bryophyte mosses to primitive vascular Cooksonia to the first forests.

Stroll into your den or living room.  You probably have a tree up in your home right now because of the season and the proximity of a special winter holiday. Imagine, for a second, that the tree isn’t nearly as gorgeous as it would be if you adorned it with ornaments, ribbons, and lights. What do you observe?

Decorating your Christmas tree like a pro

You undoubtedly see your Christmas tree’s needles right away. They remain green throughout the year and can be somewhat sharp to the touch, depending on the type. Your Christmas tree’s needles are actually its leaves. Yep. Like the leaves you’re used to seeing on other plants, the needles of pine, fir, spruce, and other conifers are highly sophisticated photosynthetic organs. In doubt? Let’s examine leaf anatomy in greater detail than the naked eye allows. A plant’s leaves are its specialized photosynthesis organs. They expose a huge portion of their surface to light. This allows light to reach the lower leaf cells. The cuticle is a waxy substance that covers the upper leaf surface (epidermis) and serves to limit water loss and gas exchange.

The “Palisade parenchyma cells” that lie beneath the epidermis are closely packed, rod-shaped cells. These cells are the most photosynthetically active in the leaf because they contain an abundance of chloroplasts. Underneath the palisade layer is a layer of cells known as “spongy parenchyma,” which allows for gas exchange but has a more disorganized framework. In the same way, they sheath the vascular system. The “plant breathing” of oxygen and water vapor release is regulated by stoma cells located in the thin cuticle and pores of the lower epidermis. What you’re thinking, by the way, is exactly what we were thinking. That’s not how pine needles work at all.

Christmas tree safety tips for your home

Take a good, hard look. Thin, spongelike parenchyma surrounds a central channel that carries xylem and phloem. Palisade parenchyma is clearly visible in this section (in deep red). The outer cuticle is thick, and the stomatal pores are large. Wrapped up like a plate of sushi, the leaf has all the necessary components. In order to photosynthesize all year long, even in cold, dry, or harsh environments, pine trees develop leaves with these characteristics.

Now, let’s examine the tips of one of the branches. Move any decorations out of the way if you need to. Depending on the tree species, you may find a single bud at the very tip, or two or more bud clusters farther out.

The environmental impact of Christmas trees

Those little florets at the tips of your branches are actually stem cells. Trees’ terminal buds and their canopy buds are examples of meristems. Leaves, bark, vascular tissue, and roots all develop from them (each root tip is made of meristem tissue). The meristem buds that can be seen at the tips of the branches play a role in regulating the branch’s development. The apical meristem in the crown of the plant controls them. One definition of a “dominant” meristem is one that suppresses the development of rival apical meristems. This is what creates the characteristic single trunk and drooping branch structure of your pine tree. It also indicates that the trunk expands vertically at a rate greater than that of the branches. You can only see the root meristem, but there is one more meristem below the surface. Cavium, to be specific.