In the book „Tree, A Life Story“ by Suzuki & Grady, 2004 the authors describe trees as tall and fascinating creatures.
I was curious to read something unexpected about evergreen conifers, the coast Douglas-fir (pseudotsuga), Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis), giant sequoia. The big exemplares of them are not even destroyed by the largest forest fires. In effect such big trees need large fires as precondition for their reproduction and completion of their life-cycle. For these trees the large forest fire is not from heaven or hell but rather part of the natural process determining live.
Fire is energy..... instead of dropping the seed like apple or maple these trees riserve it and release it only as reaction after an activator, a stimulus from the environment. Northamerican-coast located Weymouth or Murray-pine (pinus monticola) riserve its seed sometimes over 50 years and wait for a fire, to open the peg and to release the contained seeds. Sequioa release seeds at a temperature between 50 and 60 degrees (Celsius). Only a fire can produce it, while texture of human an animals degenerate at these temperatures.
It is supposed that the lower branches of the coniferes solely die off and remain at the tree to serve as fuel, enable the ground fire to reach the treetop and to finally heat up the pegs and release the seed.
Of course my christmas tree was never called "paradise" tree and would not survive neither forest fire nor a room fire. Plastic burns well. He was bought in a market and nevertheless i like it and decorate it since we live in our new appartment and each year my daugthers, my wife and me open our gifts under the tree. It is not fire-proofed and only a mingy conspecific of the larger, bigger, taller ones from the woods that are so at risk of contamination and climatic change.
Real trees are masters of surviving and clever-clever life techniques. Dozens of exciting stores could I tell about after reading this book.
If such a tree would ever smile being decorated with fairy lights by littel children or me? While my articifical would allow me to do everything with it of course, the other, the one from the living species would be curious about human behaviour.
For a long time human mind and language illlustrated the "out of reach"-things like eternity with the tree. The tree of life in Eden a story expressing human hope of accessibility of eternal life. And more earthly the Tree of life illustrates as symbol the changes in human life.
This exemplar of a pine in the Inyo National Forest achieves more than 5064 years by simple keeping active its stemcells.
