How do coniferous trees survive in high mountain regions?

If you have seen a traditional Christmas tree, you already know what a coniferous tree looks like. The Christmas tree is usually an evergreen conifer, such as a spruce, pine or fir. Coniferous means ‘cone bearing’. In other words, conifers include all plants that have cones. There are over 600 species of conifers.

They are mostly found in higher altitudes and mountain ranges. Most of them have a triangular appearance and needle-like, waxy leaves. These leaves reduce moisture loss and their evergreen nature helps the tree to perform photosynthesis all year long.

Another advantage is that these trees do not have to grow new leaves in spring, thus reducing the generative load on them. In the mountains the growing season is much shorter and the trees need to take complete advantage of this to survive. The deep green colour of the leaves is also believed to help them absorb maximum energy from the weak sunshine in cold regions.

In addition to their special foliage, the conical shape of the trees is also adapted to shake off excess snow and stay upright even when heavy snowstorms deposit lots of snow on them. Some tree species like firs and spruces are also very flexible which allows them to bend and not break under heavy loads of snow.

Picture Credit : Google

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