Evergreen Tree

The actual term evergreen tree is sort of a lie since it makes one believe that the tree never sheds it leaves which just is not true. The evergreen tree will keep the same set of leaves for 12 months or longer and will progressively change leaves as they get damaged or to old, the fast rate of growth usually makes it impossible to see where the old leaf has been since it probably already has been replaced. In tropical climates the evergreen trees is not very surprising since they are blessed with warmth, water and sunlight all year long thus letting them grow all over the year. But in temperate zones where evergreen trees are much less common, there still are trees that defy both frost and darkness. The secret is that these trees grow in soils low on nutrition. Keeping the leaves and needles, which contain the nutrition, lets the evergreen tree to survive where many other trees would not since these need new nutrition every time they grow new leaves. Many evergreen trees actually produce these soil properties for themselves making it impossible for any non-evergreen plant life to survive, thus making all the nutrition evergreen property.

There are trees out there that might seem as if they were evergreen since they have their leaves or needles all throughout the year. In many ways they are evergreen but what separates them from the true evergreen is that they have the ability to shed every single leaf if it is needed. Truly a superior quality since it can make these trees survive things other tree would not. It is a evergreen tree but once a certain set of demands are met the tree simply sheds its leaves and continues to survive. The reasons for this could be drought or simply a dramatic decrease of availability of water. It might sound silly to do so since the leaves contain much water, but if there is not enough water in the ground to compensate for the evaporation in the leaves the simplest way to save water is simply to shed all the leaves at once and keeping the moist inside of the tree.