From JOHN BRUNNER
Kate Charlesworth’s spread on trees (‘Life, the Universe and almost
Everything,’ 18 May) prompts me to revive a question I put to the people
at Kew several years ago. They couldn’t give me an answer. Maybe by now
someone can.
In order to help keep up the oxygen level, which is it better to plant
– broad-leaved trees, or conifers?
I can see possibilities both ways. Broad-leaved trees have the greater
respiration area; however, they are mostly deciduous, which means that for
a long period each year they are dormant. Conifers are evergreen; however,
having only needles they presumably possess a smaller total respiration
area per unit of ground occupied.
To the layman, this and related questions are a real headache. Being
a lazy gardener, and assuming that the plants that grow the fastest are
fixing more carbon than the competition, I sometimes feel I ought to let
the weeds take over. On the other hand, I like currants and gooseberries
better than convolvulus and goosegrass . . .
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John Brunner South Petherton, Somerset
