Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution => Topic started by: EvaH on 15/05/2020 10:07:01
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Paul asks:
There are hard woods (which take a long time to grow,presumably because of their density, such as Kauri Agathis australis) and soft woods such as pinus radiata. How difficult would it be to bioengineer a fast growing evergreen hardwood? I presume this would result in a tree which was not a true hardwood nor softwood. I assume if it were not difficult Departments of Forestry would have already developed them. It annoys me to walk in cities where their drains are blocked because the city fathers planted deciduous trees in the streets and parks instead of conifers or other evergreen trees.
What do you think?
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Hardwoods are not necessarily hard! The classic is balsa, probably the softest engineering material before plastics, but botanically a hardwood!
Urban trees were required to be resilient to pollutants, and the classic London Plane actually absorbed a lot of the crud in the atmosphere when we used raw coal for fuel. I'm not sure that evergreens are that tolerant.
Despite its undeserved reputation in the snootier parts of suburbia, cupressus leylandii can I'm sure be used for making paper or fibreboard, its varieties are quite attractive, and it grows so quickly that a bit of stunting from exhaust fumes wouldn't affect the commercial yield much. But the pleasure of cherry blossom and chestnut candles surely outweighs a bit of drain clearing?
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Having visited cities in colder parts of the world (colder than Sydney), I can really appreciate a tree that loses its leaves in winter, allowing the Sun to provide some limited warmth during the winter months.
When I was living in Belgium, I was somewhat puzzled when the local government erected little fenced circles on the sidewalk outside every home. All was revealed soon after, when the trees shed all their leaves. The residents scooped the fallen leaves into the circles, and the local government came along with a truck-sized vacuum-cleaner and took them all away...
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What do you think?
I think this
It annoys me to walk in cities where their drains are blocked because the city fathers planted deciduous trees in the streets and parks instead of conifers or other evergreen trees.
shouts "first world problems!" rather loudly.
If it really troubles you. complain to the local council.
Apart from anything else, imagine that I can engineer any tree you like.
The local elected officials chose deciduous trees.
Why on Earth would they choose some "magic" evergreen tree?
They like the ones they chose.