Dictionary:

evergreen

  (ĕv'ər-grēn')

1. Having foliage that persists and remains green throughout the year.
2. Perenially fresh or interesting; enduring.

1. A tree, shrub, or plant having foliage that persists and remains green throughout the year.
2. evergreens Twigs or branches of evergreen plants used as decoration.
3. Something that remains perennially fresh, interesting, or well liked.

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.

For more information on evergreen, visit Britannica.com.

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.

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.

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.

This article is about plant types. For other uses, see Evergreen (disambiguation).

A Silver Fir shoot showing three successive years of retained leaves

In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves all year round. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose all their foliage for part of the year.

Leaf persistence in evergreen plants may vary from only a few months (with new leaves constantly being grown and old ones shed), up to a maximum of 45 years in Great Basin Bristlecone Pine Pinus longaeva ^[1]. However, very few species show leaf persistence of over 5 years.

A Southern live oak in winter

One additional special case exists in Welwitschia, an African gymnosperm plant which produces only two leaves, which grow continuously throughout the plant's life but gradually wear away at the apex, giving about 20–40 years' persistence of leaf tissue.

Reasons for being evergreen or deciduous

Deciduous trees shed their leaves for a reason--usually as an adaptation to a cold season or a dry season, when carrying leaves may become a liability. 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 they must replenish these nutrients from the soil to build new leaves. When few nutrients are available, evergreen plants have 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 other evergreen plants to survive cold and/or drought.^[2][3][4]

References

1. ^ Ewers, F. W. & Schmid, R. (1981). Longevity of needle fascicles of Pinus longaeva (Bristlecone Pine) and other North American pines. Oecologia 51: 107-115.
2. ^ Joshua, W. (1995). The advantages of being evergreen. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 10 (10): 402-407.
3. ^ Matyssek, R. (1986) Carbon, water and nitrogen relations in evergreen and deciduous conifers. Tree Physiology 2: 177–187.
4. ^ Sobrado, M. A. (1991) Cost-Benefit Relationships in Deciduous and Evergreen Leaves of Tropical Dry Forest Species. Functional Ecology 5 (5): 608-616.

See also

• Deciduous
• Semi-deciduous
• Semi-evergreen
• Evergreen game, a famous chess game

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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

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