Respect that Christmas Tree Before You Toss It
Conifers are remarkably hardy trees
equipped to survive harsh conditions
By now, most of us have probably dragged the Christmas tree out beside the trash bins for pickup. If yours is not out yet, take a moment to wonder at the mechanisms that help make conifers not only beautiful but some of the hardiest plants on earth.
The science behind Christmas trees: How conifers brave winter’s worst (10 Dec 2024, Umea University). Scientists at this Swedish university have figured out some of the traits that allow conifers (cone-bearers) to survive harsh winters. “Most people take it for granted that they maintain their needles lush and green in freezing winters and blinding sunlight in the boreal forests,” the subtitle reads, “but now scientists can unwrap the science behind conifers’ winter survival.” One should never take biological design for granted.
A difficulty conifers must deal with is bright sunlight in winter when conditions for growth are not favorable. The trees must quench their photosynthetic activity at such times – and not just slow it down, but keep it slowed down for extended periods. They do this with a built-in mechanism called “sustained quenching.”
One of the two main findings, both of which this group of researchers have contributed to, is that conifers change the structure of their thylakoid membranes – where photosynthesis takes place – making Photosystem I (PSI) and Photosystem II (PSII), which otherwise by large remain separated, come in winter closer to each other and work together in a special way named spill-over.
“This helps them to safely dissipate extra energy and avoid damage from too much sunlight in the cold,” says Stefan Jansson, Professor at Umeå Plant Science Centre at Umeå University.
The second strategy found by the researchers involves “alternative electron flow,” the press release continues. This requires specialized proteins to keep the photosynthesis process balanced and “prevents the system from becoming overloaded when there’s too much light and freezing temperatures.” Their research paper was published in Trends in Plant Science on 23 November 2024 with the title, “Photosynthetic advantages of conifers in the boreal forest.”
These survival skills are missing from many angiosperm (flowering) trees, which are more accustomed to plentiful water and nutrients. Conifers like pines and firs often blanket the slopes of high mountains, having to endure brutal weather for much of the year. To most people, few things are lovelier in nature than a montane forest, its tall conifers reaching for the sky, the smell of pine-scented air, and the productive habitat these trees provide for birds, mammals, insects, fungi and other species.

Conifers thrive in harsh conditions with little soil or water in freezing winters. Photo by David Coppedge in the Sierra Nevada backcountry.
According to evolutionary dogma, conifers evolved before angiosperms appeared on the earth. And yet conifers seem hardier and perfectly designed for a wide range of biomes. Why, then, are the authors of the paper obsessed with looking at them from an “evolutionary perspective”?
Boreal conifers – the ‘Christmas trees’ – maintain their green needles over the winter by retaining their chlorophyll. These conifers face the toughest challenge in February and March, when subzero temperatures coincide with high solar radiation. To balance the light energy they harvest with the light energy they utilise, conifers deploy various mechanisms in parallel. These include, thylakoid destacking, which facilitates direct energy transfer from Photosystem II (PSII) to Photosystem I (PSI), and excess energy dissipation through sustained nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ). Additionally, they upregulate alternative electron transport pathways to safely reroute excess electrons while maintaining ATP production. From an evolutionary and ecological perspective, we consider these mechanisms as part of a comprehensive photosynthetic alteration, which enhances our understanding of winter acclimation in conifers and their dominance in the boreal forests.
What’s evolution got to do with this research? Nothing! Yet on they go riding this hobby horse, giving credit to Darwin for wonders of nature:

The Grinch who steals Christmas
- plants have evolved several control mechanisms
- we examine these mechanisms in light of current advancements from molecular, structural, and evolutionary perspectives
- We also discuss the evolutionary importance of these mechanisms for understanding plant adaptation to changing climates.
- The major … proteins are believed to have evolved around the time that plants colonised land….
- On the evolutionary scale, conifers (gymnosperms) are much older than angiosperms and probably evolved where conditions for plant growth were most favourable
- …during winter could be a remarkable evolutionary adaptation
- evolution seems to have optimised the balance between growth and survival in plants for prospering different ecosystems
- swifter protection mechanisms … have been favoured by evolution
- In harsher climates … slow and potentially futile but survival-ensuring mechanisms … appear to be a reasonable evolutionary strategy.
In their conclusion, they liken conifers to the tortoise in a race against the hare: slow and steady wins the race. If that is such a successful “evolutionary” strategy, why did all the other plants choose the losing strategy? This is nuts. It makes no sense. The “evolutionary perspective” offers no “understanding” of biology. In evolutionary theory, stuff just happens. Mutations do not choose to optimize anything, favor anything, or strategize anything. These evolutionists do not understand evolution (21 Nov 2024).
Reasons to worship ancient trees (16 December 2024, Current Biology). In this article about conservation of natural forests, veteran Darwin Party hack Michael Gross mistakenly implies that Christians borrowed “worship” of evergreen trees from pagan Europeans. This is a Gross misrepresentation. Christians do not worship ancient trees; they worship God who gave his Son, Jesus, as our Redeemer. They worship God who made all things beautiful, including trees (see Kilmer poem). Michael’s big lie harks back to the inane evolutionary statement by Carl Sagan in the original Cosmos series, “It makes good sense to revere the trees, for we are their children.” Au contraire: Christians hark the herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King.”
Want to recycle Christmas trees? Donate them to goats (29 Dec 2024, Reuters on YouTube). Here’s a fun story to end on. When it comes to Christmas tree recyclers, goats are the greatest of all time. Watch these lovable goats munch happily on Christmas trees donated to the farm. It’s nutritious for them, and they compost it through their guts into biological material that can fertilize the next crop of Christmas trees. There’s a circular economy in action.
Till next Christmas, Happy New Year, and let’s work to keep Grinch Darwin out of our lives.