7 evergreen trees to appreciate this winter

For plenty of folks, the holiday season wouldn’t be the same without a fragrant balsam fir covered in lights—it’s one of North America’s most popular Christmas trees, along with white spruce and Scotch pine. Like other northern conifers, balsam fir produces a sticky sap. It acts like antifreeze for the tree’s roots and branches and keeps it from losing its needles to the cold.

Although this tree isn’t as tall or dramatic looking as other Canadian pines, it has a charm of its own. It’s scruffy, knotty, and usually grows with a twisted trunk. But Canadian artist Tom Thomson had no problem with that, apparently. He captured it in his famous 1916 painting, titled, of course, “Jack Pine.”

This pine is a tough customer—it flourishes on rocky shorelines, and in areas with dry, sandy soil. (Most trees don’t do well in those conditions.) It’s also resistant to insect damage and fungi, can withstand temperatures down to -50 degrees Celsius, and survives forest fires thanks to its thick, practically unburnable bark.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s official tree might not be the prettiest specimen of the bunch, but it’s certainly distinctive. The spindly tree’s branches are sometimes draped in moss, giving it a somewhat spooky look. In Ontario, the tree is most common in the northern boreal forest. It grows well in boggy conditions.

For those in Ontario cottage country, there’s probably no tree more iconic than the windswept Group of Seven favourite, the white pine. It’s the tallest tree east of the Rockies, can live for more than 400 years, and feeds squirrels, voles, porcupines, and dozens of seed-eating birds.

Manitoba’s most abundant tree—and the province’s arboreal emblem—also makes for a holiday favourite thanks to its short, sturdy, blue-green needles. Not only can a white spruce stand up to hefty holiday decorations, it can stand up to a brutal winter. Triggered by a drop in atmospheric pressure, a white spruce has the ability to close up the space between its branches and brace itself for heavy snow.

Pop quiz: when is a conifer tree deciduous? That’s not a trick question. The tamarack, a.k.a. the Northwest Territories’ official tree, has needles that turn yellow in fall. Eventually, the tree sheds them. Most evergreen trees have needles with a waxy coating to protect them from winter weather. The tamarack doesn’t. But it has an advantage in the spring; because it often grows close to water, it has plenty of access to nutrients and can quickly replenish its foliage. Okay, so maybe this tree doesn’t belong on a list of evergreens. But it’s one of the few deciduous conifers in the world…so we feel that it deserves a special mention.