unchanging?

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The adult leaves of pines are called needles, perhaps for obvious reasons. Depending on the species, needles can live from 1.5 to 40 years, which make them evergreen, almost. But it does pose the question: Just how ever is evergreen?

Because they tend to be ever green, you seem to notice when they are not. I encountered this branch of golden dead needles on a short walk at Fall Creek Falls State Park.

“Green pine, unchanging as the days go by,
Thou art thyself beneath whatever sky”

- From a poem by Augusta Davies Webster, although as I found out, sometimes green pines do change.


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