White resin or powder on conifer needles?

Question

I often notice that certain conifers often have a whitish powder on what seems to be their youngest needles, giving them a blue green tint. Does anyone know what this is? Is it something excreted by the trees themselves, is it a yeast or some other endophytic microorganism? Very curious and unfortunately I don't have a microscope.

Answer 1

Hi (Nameless),

You don't need a microscope to make a good guess. Take a little piece of facial tissue, and wipe the layer off of lots and lots of young needles, until the tissue is caked up. Then compare the water absorbancy of your treated tissue with that of untreated tissue. I'm guessing you'll be able to make the tissue non-water-absorbant.

The plant does this to retard water loss from its young needles, until they size up and have a robust surface layer.

By the way, the plant "bayberry" used to be used as a source of the same type of substance; huge quantities of ripe berries (which have a greyish bloom, as it's called) are boiled; the substance melts and floats off. Usually we use crude-oil-derived hydrocarbons with a similar melting point and volatility to make a combustible source of light, nowadays.