evergreen
adj.
- Having foliage that persists and remains green throughout the year.
- Perenially fresh or interesting; enduring.
n.
- A tree, shrub, or plant having foliage that persists and remains green throughout the year.
- evergreens Twigs or branches of evergreen plants used as decoration.
- Something that remains perennially fresh, interesting, or well liked.
Any plant that retains its leaves through the winter and into the following summer or through several years. Many tropical species of broad-leaved flowering plants are evergreen, but in cold-temperate and Arctic areas the evergreens commonly are cone-bearing shrubs or trees (conifers), such as pines and firs. The leaves of evergreens usually are thicker and more leathery than those of deciduous trees and often are needlelike or scalelike in cone-bearing trees. A leaf (or needle) may remain on an evergreen tree for two years or longer and may fall during any season.
For more information on evergreen, visit Britannica.com.
Plants that retain their green foliage throughout the year. Popularly, needle-leaved trees (pine, fir, juniper, spruce) and certain broad-leaved shrubs (rhododendron, laurel) are called evergreens. In warm regions many broad-leaved trees (magnolia, live oak) are evergreen, and in the tropics most trees are evergreen and nearly all have broad leaves. Many herbaceous biennials and perennials have basal rosettes with leaves close to the ground that remain green throughout the winter. See also Forest and forestry; Leaf; Plant taxonomy.
A plant which keeps its leaves throughout the year instead of losing them seasonally. Most evergreens have some defence against water loss in the winter in the form of needle-like or waxy leaves.
A high proportion of the plants important in folk customs are evergreen—a fact which can be seen either in practical or symbolic terms. Folklorists have usually highlighted the latter, suggesting that at winter festivals they represented the unconquered life-force, and at funerals immortality. This may be so, though early sources offer little direct evidence, and what there is does not always bear out the theory; holly, for instance, is celebrated in a well-known medieval carol because its features recall aspects of Christ's birth and life, while rosemary proverbially was ‘for remembrance’. The herbalist Willam Coles, in his The Art of Simpling (1656: 64-5), thought lasting memory was the key concept:
Cypresse Garlands are of great account at Funeralls amongst the gentiler sort, but Rosemary and Bayes are used by the Commons both at Funeralls and Weddings. They are all plants which fade not a good while after they are gathered and used (as I conceive) to intimate unto us, that the remembrance of the present solemnity might not dye presently, but be kept in minde for many years.
However, availability must also have been an important factor; weddings and funerals occur at all seasons, so it was possible to make evergreens a standard feature of these occasions, but not always flowers.
Said of a plant or tree that retains its verdure through all the seasons, as the pine and other coniferous trees, the holly, rhododendron, etc.
evergreen, term commonly used as synonymous with conifer and applied also to all those broad-leaved plants that bear green leaves throughout the year. Of the latter, most are plants of the tropics, subtropics, and other areas where the growing season is prolonged (e.g., New Zealand and the Pacific Northwest of the United States). In colder climates various broad-leaved shrubs (e.g., box, holly, and members of the heath family) are evergreen. Some broadleaf evergreens shed all their leaves for a brief period; the rest lose them continually, producing new leaves as the old ones fall. The term "half-evergreen" is used for deciduous plants with relatively persistent leaves.
The custom of decorating houses at Christmastide with evergreen plants—holly, ivy, box, laurel, mistletoe—is sometimes said to have originated when Christianity was introduced into Europe in order to typify the first British church, built of evergreen boughs. More probably it extends back into antiquity. In Druidic times, people decorated their houses with evergreen plants so that the sylvan spirits might come there to shelter from the severity of winter until their leafy bowers were renewed in the coming year. It was a widespread superstition that it was unlucky to remove evergreen Christmas decorations until after Twelfth Night.
A plant that retains its leaves for more than one annual cycle of growth.
Evergreen plants, such as pine trees, traditionally represent immortality because they do not shed their leaves, even in the dead of winter. They also symbolize hope in the midst of despair for the same reason. Because of their association with Christmas, evergreens also symbolize gift-giving.
A Silver Fir shoot showing three successive years of retained leaves.
In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during winter.
There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs. Evergreens include:
- live oak, holly, and "ancient" gymnosperms such as cycads
- most angiosperms from frost-free climates, such as eucalypts and rainforest trees
An additional special case exists in Welwitschia, an African gymnosperm plant that produces only two leaves, which grow continuously throughout the plant's life but gradually wear away at the apex, giving 20–40 years' persistence of leaf tissue.
Leaf persistence in evergreen plants varies from a few months (with new leaves constantly being grown as old ones are shed) to several decades (over thirty years in the Great Basin Bristlecone Pine[1]).
Reasons for being evergreen or deciduous
Deciduous trees shed their leaves usually as an adaptation to a cold or dry season. Most tropical rainforest plants are evergreens, replacing their leaves gradually throughout the year as the leaves age and fall, whereas species growing in seasonally arid climates may be either evergreen or deciduous. Most warm temperate climate plants are also evergreen. In cool temperate climates, fewer plants are evergreen, with a predominance of conifers, as few evergreen broadleaf plants can tolerate severe cold below about -30 °C.
In areas where there is a reason for being deciduous (e.g. a cold season or dry season), being evergreen is usually an adaptation to low nutrient levels. Deciduous trees lose nutrients whenever they lose their leaves, and an advantage. In warmer areas, species such as some pines and cypresses grow on poor soils and disturbed ground. In Rhododendron, a genus with many broadleaf evergreens, several species grow in mature forests but are usually found on highly acidic soil where the nutrients are less available to plants. In taiga or boreal forests, it is too cold for the organic matter in the soil to decay rapidly, so the nutrients in the soil are less easily available to plants, thus favouring evergreens.
In temperate climates, evergreens can reinforce their own survival; evergreen leaf and needle litter has a higher carbon-nitrogen ratio than deciduous leaf litter, contributing to a higher soil acidity and lower soil nitrogen content. These conditions favour the growth of more evergreens and make it more difficult for deciduous plants to persist. In addition, the shelter provided by existing evergreen plants can make it easier for younger evergreen plants to survive cold and/or drought.[2][3][4]
Evergreen plants and deciduous plants have almost all the same diseases and pests, but long-term air pollution, ash and toxic substances in the air are more injurious for evergreen plants than deciduous plants (for example spruce Picea abies in European cities).
Metaphorical use
Owing to the botanical meaning, the term "evergreen" can refer metaphorically to something that is continuously renewed or is self-renewing.
See also
References
- ^ Ewers, F. W. & Schmid, R. (1981). Longevity of needle fascicles of Pinus longaeva (Bristlecone Pine) and other North American pines. Oecologia 51: 107–115
- ^ Aerts, R. (1995). The advantages of being evergreen. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 10 (10): 402–407.
- ^ Matyssek, R. (1986) Carbon, water and nitrogen relations in evergreen and deciduous conifers. Tree Physiology 2: 177–187.
- ^ Sobrado, M. A. (1991) Cost-Benefit Relationships in Deciduous and Evergreen Leaves of Tropical Dry Forest Species. Functional Ecology 5 (5): 608–616.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Dansk (Danish)
adj. - stedsegrøn, evigt ung
n. - stedsegrøn vækst, evergreen
Nederlands (Dutch)
evergreen, immergroen (plant/boom), iets wat altijd interessant/ populair blijft
Français (French)
adj. - vert, à feuilles persistantes, toujours en vogue, éternel, qui revient toujours (un sujet, une conversation)
n. - arbre/plante à feuilles persistantes, (fig) chanson qui ne vieillit pas, (US) crédit permanent non confirmé
Deutsch (German)
adj. - immergrün, ständig aktuell
n. - Immergrün, Evergreen
Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - (φυτολ., μτφ.) αειθαλής
n. - αειθαλές φυτό
Italiano (Italian)
sempreverde
Português (Portuguese)
adj. - perene
n. - sempre-verde (f) (Bot.)
Русский (Russian)
вечнозеленое растение, неувядающая популярность
Español (Spanish)
adj. - siempre verde, de hoja perenne
n. - cualquier planta o arbusto de hoja perenne
Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - vintergrön
n. - vintergrön växt, evergreen (schlager)
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
常绿的, 常绿树, 常绿植物
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 常綠的
n. - 常綠樹, 常綠植物
한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 상록의
n. - 상록수, 사철나무
日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 常緑の
n. - 常緑樹
العربيه (Arabic)
(صفه) دائم الخضرة (الاسم) شجرة دائمه الخضرة
עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ירוק-עד
n. - עץ ירוק-עד
If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.
To select your translation preferences click here.
Related topics:
Related answers:
Help us answer these:
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
 |
 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 1994-2010 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Sci-Tech Encyclopedia. McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Geography Dictionary. A Dictionary of Geography. Copyright © Susan Mayhew 1992, 1997, 2004. All rights reserved. Read more |
|
| English Folklore. A Dictionary of English Folklore. Copyright © 2000, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
|
| Architecture. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2010, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
 |
| Occultism & Parapsychology Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology. Copyright © 2001 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Gardener's Dictionary. Taylor's Dictionary for Gardeners, by Frances Tenenbaum. Copyright © 1997 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| The Dreams Encyclopedia. The Dreams Encyclopedia. 1995 ©Visible Ink Press (VisibleInkPress.com). All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Evergreen. Read more |
 |
| Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more |