Christmas trees are getting shorter, according to research conducted by Dr David Hanke and colleagues in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge. The team sprayed spruce trees with different pollutants such as acids, nitrogen and sulphur compounds over a three-year period. They found that the plants treated with nitrogen were shorter and wider, and more densely branched.
Christmas trees are getting shorter, according to research conducted by Dr David Hanke and colleagues in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge. The team sprayed spruce trees with different pollutants such as acids, nitrogen and sulphur compounds over a three-year period. They found that the plants treated with nitrogen were shorter and wider, and more densely branched.
Increased nitrogen levels, from agricultural sources such as fertilisers and animal sewage stimulate a hormone called cytokinin that causes buds to grow from the stem and become branches. As a result, trees start to grow outwards as well as upwards.
A special Christmas tree display was unveiled yesterday at the Science Museum’s Antenna gallery. The exhibition explores how increasing levels of nitrogen in the atmosphere are resulting in shorter, bushier Christmas trees.
Dr David Hanke from the Department of Plant Sciences said:
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