Balsam-fir and Christmas

Already the wreaths are appearing at local markets. Christmas tree yards are advertising and we will see cut trees available on town and city corners very soon. The Christmas-tree industry in Nova Scotia began exporting in 1932 and the majority of the trees are balsam-fir. It takes 6-10 years to grow a 2-2.5m tree.

While the use of an evergreen tree to mark the winter solstice was a pagan tradition, by the mid 1800s Europeans were decorating trees inside with the Germans credited with originating it. Certainly Queen Victoria’s families popularized it and North America took notice.

Near the turn of the 20th century many German-made ornaments arrived here to decorate the floor-to-ceiling Christmas trees. Handmade ornaments were the norm and the Germans preferred to use edibles: nuts, fruit and cookies.

Balsam-fir has been used for probably a thousand years to decorate during festivals. It was originally hung upside down in homes in northern Europe. The resin has been chewed prior to the arrival of chewing-gum. The resinous knots in fir have been used as torches. The resin even served as a balm on injured limbs during the Civil War. Small fir boughs are used for stuffing ‘pine pillows’. It provides a deodorizing decorative item in homes. Many birds and animals use fir for browse, the cones for food and the thickets for shelter.

In our historic African Nova Scotian communities, many are gathering the balsam-fir boughs needed for Christmas wreath-making. Mrs. Mazie Simmonds explained to me that there are many teachers of the fir wreath-making and many of these teachers continue to make wreaths into their 70s and 80s.
Her wreaths use no frame except for the limbs themselves. They are tied in place and decorated with rose hips and a plant she called Running Christmas (one of our clubmosses), common in our forests and barrens. They too are evergreen. Sometimes she adds ribbon and even doubles two wreaths into one.

Mrs. Simmonds’ wreaths are available at markets in Dartmouth, or directly. She lives in North Preston and even delivers.

For more information on Christmas tree traditions, please refer to http://extension.illinois.edu/trees/facts.cfm and for industry information in Nova Scotia see http://novascotia.ca/natr/christmastrees/tradition.asp

Balsam-fir, photo by Beth Cameron

Mrs. Mazie Simmonds, grandsons and wreaths, photo by Marian Munro

Back of fir wreath, photo by Marian Munro

Balsam-fir candles

As a student of botany I often need to develop short-cuts and visual field cues to aid in remembering key features. I am certain that we all have mental blocks about remembering certain facts. For years I confused identification of mature balsam-fir and spruce trees.  Just could not seem to remember which was which, when the branches were 'way up there'. I could never discern the bark differences.

All conifers produce cones. The familiar woody cones we find on the ground are the mature female cones that open to release the seeds. Rightfully called strobili (singular: strobilus), the staminate or male cones are herbaceous, dropping soon after pollen is released. The female or pistillate cones may take 6 to 24 months to open, depending on whether it is a spruce, pine, cedar or juniper. Each cone is made up of overlapping scales, spirally arranged. Each scale bears a seed. 

So fir-candles were a result of these musings. The balsam-fir is an important tree in those counties that produce Christmas trees. They are rarely so tall that the two-ranked needles can't be seen. However on the large, mature trees the presence of these lovely purplish cones serves as a visual cue for me. After all candles are never upside down and spruce wear their cones pendant. I am down with that!

Reg Newell shot this beautiful close-sup of a cluster of balsam-fir candles. It is one of 10 posters that wil be on display Wednesday April 8 at 7:00PM at the Museum of Natural History. Admission is free to the Museum that evening and the occasion marks the official launch of the NS Plants publication. Reg was one of nearly 40 photographers who donated the use of their plant images for this comprehensive eBook.