"What you might not appreciate is that conifers, which grow and thrive all year alongside other evergreens, have played some surprising roles in U.S. history. Take the eastern white pine. It decorated the first coins minted in the British colonies. Spruce lumberjacks in the early 20th century, meanwhile, helped enshrine some key labor rights, including an eight-hour workday and overtime pay. These tales and more are highlighted by Trent Preszler, an environmental economist at Cornell University,"
"I was out shopping for a Christmas tree at this tree farm on Long Island, and they had these rows of artificially spray-painted, fluorescent neon Christmas trees like Dr. Seuss—pink and purple and green and yellow—and they were selling like hotcakes. And I just thought, What, is the basic evergreen not enough for us? Did we have to make it into this gaudy, commercial product?"
Conifers provide year-round greenery and serve as primary species for holiday decoration. Eastern white pine appeared on the first coins minted in the British colonies. Spruce lumberjacks in the early 20th century helped secure labor rights such as the eight-hour workday and overtime pay. Artificially spray-painted neon Christmas trees have been commercially popular on some tree farms, prompting reflection about the commercialization of traditional evergreens. Conifer-derived lumber and trade shaped regional economies and worker movements. The tree lineage traces back to Archaeopteris, about 367 million years ago, which acted as a precursor to modern trees and was the first in the fossil record with a vascular structure.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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