Fir trees are popular trees because people keep using them as… Christmas trees!
Fir trees are the… natural Christmas trees! Let’s find out more about them!
- Fir trees are evergreen trees.
- They belong to the Abies of the family Pinaceae.
- In the whole world exist 56 species of fir trees.
- They are pretty tall trees because they can reach up to 10-80 meters.
- Firs are uninodal.
- Firs normally live at least 500 years.
- Sometimes they even exceed 1,000 years.
- Rocky Mountain Douglas don’t live so long.
- They usually live no more than 400 years.
- The population of these trees is stable.
- They grow in sun to partial shade.
- They are easily damaged and uprooted by high winds.
- Fir reproduces by seeds which form on cones.
- They start being reproduced at the age of 20.
- Most fir trees’ roots extend down to about 3 feet but can be deeper.
- Firs belong to the ancient group of conifers.
- Conifers can be found 300 million years ago to the Paleozoic in the late Carboniferous period.
- Fir trees are the most popular trees used for Christmas decoration.
- The evergreen fir tree has traditionally been used to celebrate winter festivals for thousands of years.
- Pagans used its branches to celebrate homes during the winter solstice.
- The Romans used Fir Trees to decorate their temples at the festival of Saturnalia.
- For Christians, it symbolizes the everlasting life of God.
- But the first fir tree that was used for Christmas decoration was about 1000 years ago.
- It happened somewhere in Northern Europe.
- A fir tree has been found growing inside a man’s lung.
- It was found by surgeons while they were operating on him for suspected cancer.
- Probably he inhaled seeds.
- The seeds later started growing into a small fir tree inside his lung.
- This incident happened in Russia and the man was Russian.
- Teddy Roosevelt banned the Christmas tree from the White House while he was the President for the U.S.A. for environmental reasons.
- This happened from 1948 to 1951.
