Top of the list for residents of Ontario are Scots Pine and White Pine – the latter also being the provincial tree, although in England it is known as Weymouth Pine
It’s the tradition: “Let’s go out and choose a Christmas tree,” you announce. Or perhaps you see the neighbours decorating the Christmas tree growing on their front lawn. Earlier in the year, you described driving through Canada’s vast northern coniferous forests as travelling past Christmas trees. But depending on where you live, that Christmas tree could be any one of twenty or more species.
Top of the list for residents of Ontario are Scots Pine and White Pine – the latter also being the provincial tree, although in England it is known as Weymouth Pine. There they are more likely to select a Nordmann Fir or Norway Spruce to mark the festive season. Christmas tree growers there are rubbing chilled hands this year as families increasing splurge of not one but two trees, one for the living room and another for the guest bedroom.
A study published by Université Laval researchers and their colleagues from the Canadian Forest Services in the journal BMC Biology reveals that things haven’t changed much for Christmas trees in the last 100 million years. Dinosaurs may have vanished but the genome of spruce, pine and fir has stayed pretty much the same.
South of the border, down Washington, D.C. way, the White House has a Colorado Blue Spruce on the Ellipse as the National Christmas Tree. An earlier one had died of “transplant shock” in 2011, according to the National Park Service. It was replaced the same year by another specimen that October.
Colorado Blue Spruce are not the first choice for Americans choosing a Christmas tree, say The National Christmas Tree Association. In fact, poor Picea pungens is relegated to fourth choice, regardless of what is selected at the nation’s primary residence. Top of the list is the Fraser Fir, followed by Douglas Fir in second place. Third comes the Balsam Fir. Like the Nordmann, both the Fraser and Balsam are true firs, Abies to botanists. However despite its name, the Douglas is no true fir but Pseudotsuga menziesii, a name unwise to attempt after a glass or three of seasonal cheer.
Whatever its botanical classification, the Douglas fir finds high favour in western North America as a Christmas tree – and beyond. Container loads are shipped to tropical Hawaii after receiving a precautionary hot water spray to wash out wasps and slugs seeking more salubrious climes.
The Scots Pine, Pinus sylvestris, comes in at number five as an American choice tree. It is ahead of the surprising sixth selection for Americans, especially in the East, that of Eastern Red Cedar, Juniperus virginiana, also known as Pencil Cedar from a more mundane utilization.
White Spruce, Picea glauca, a fast-growing conifer often appearing in replanting along northern highways, is becoming more familiar offered growing in a pot to be planted outside following seasonal festivities. A charming idea indeed if you have several acres but a potential disaster in limited urban settings. Felled, it is Americans’ seventh choice as a Christmas tree.
A better choice of indoor plant to stand in for the season is the Norfolk Island Pine, Araucaria heterophylla. Originating from the South Pacific Island of the same name, it may be finicky in the hot, dry homes of northern winters but, despite the designation of ‘pine’ it is no Pinus, and will die in a matter of hours left outside in the cold.
So while shepherds watched their phlox by night, enjoy your Christmas tree whatever the species. As Jessica Alba delighted: “Finally got our Xmas tree! . . . I can’t believe Xmas is already here! Who’s ready? Who’s not?”
Wes Porter is a horticultural consultant and writer based in Toronto. Wes has over 40 years of experience in both temperate and tropical horticulture from three continents.
