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Evergreen Trees  Evergreen Shrubs  Evergreen Plants

Evergreen Plant Characteristics
Evergreens retain their leaves all year round as opposed to deciduous plants which lose all their foliage for a proportion of the year leaving them bare. Old leaves shed soon after the new leaves appear. Leaf persistence lasts for one to five years in some cases with the Great Basin Bristlecone Pine lasting up to forty-five years.

Evergreens Provide Year Round Interest whether in the countryside national parks of Sierra Nevada where magnificent Giant Sequoia grow or the humble dwarf conifers in your own garden. For the gardener, they also provide essential structure or 'bones' of garden design. Choosing the right evergreens will give you long-term enjoyment with the satisfaction of easy care. Choose the wrong evergreen and you will have a constant battle controlling its growth!

Reasons To Be Evergreen Trees or Deciduous Trees
Deciduous trees drop their leaves for a specific reason which is typically self protection. This is a defense mechanism to a cold or dry season. Retaining leaves would become a liability by threatening the life of the plant.

Tropical Evergreen Plants
The majority of tropical rainforest plants are evergreen. These plants replace their leaves throughout the year. When leaves age they become ineffective at supporting the plants life and so ultimately drop. All plant waste matter easily rots down in the rain forest, so providing essential growth nutrients for established and newly sprouted plants.

In other areas where the seasons have a dry climate cycle, both evergreen and deciduous plants thrive, having adapted to their own environments successfully.

Warm Temperate Evergreen Plants
The majority of plants in a warm temperate climate are evergreen. The climate and conditions determine the success or failure of a plant to adapt. The ideal environment for evergreens to thrive will provide, warmth and stability, plus have a ready supply of water and adequate nutrients.

Cooler temperate climates have fewer evergreen plants. Such areas produce an abundance of conifers as fewer evergreen broad leaf plants are able to tolerate severe cold when temperatures go down to    -30 °C, -22 °F.

Seasonal Climate Evergreen Plants
In regions with cold or dry seasons there are good survival reasons for a plant being deciduous. The existance of evergreen plants usually indicates an adaptation to low nutrient levels. Deciduous trees, for example, lose their nutrients whenever they drop their leaves. It is essential for the tree to replenish these lost nutrients from the soil so as to build new leaves and promote growth.

In difficult times when hardly any nutrients are available, evergreen plants have a distinct survival advantage. Though their leaves and needles must be capable of withstanding cold including severe drought, they are less efficient at photosynthesis (The process used by green plants to turn the energy of sunlight into chemical reactions that convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and also produces sugars that feed the plant).

In warmer climates with both poor soil and ground conditions, some evergreens such as pines and cypresses species grow very well.

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