I am a tree hugger and do try to plant and conserve trees but today I am going to talk to you about a few things made from trees you might not be aware of.
A few of my clothes have an ingredient called modal. (I’m not sure if ingredient is the correct word to use here.) It feels like a really soft cotton fabric. I had no idea what modal was so I decided to look it up. It turns out it comes from beech trees. According to Wikipedia it is reconstituted. Do they add water?
The online dictionary says that adding water is one of the definitions of reconstituted but it also means to bring back to its original state. My panties don’t look like a tree.
We wear a lot of clothes made from trees these days and many people don’t even realize it. I try to be aware of these things but I’m a bit of a hypocrite sometimes because I have to admit that clothes made from trees are really nice.
Another fabric made from trees is Tencel and Lyocell. These fabrics feel similar to linen only it doesn’t wrinkle as easily.
I’ve recently seen clothes and linens made from bamboo. I have some dish clothes that are very nice. So far I haven’t bought any clothing but I might look for some. Who knew bamboo could be so soft when spun into cloth?
We aren’t the only ones that build our homes out of wood. Of course we know about woodpeckers and a few other animals but did you know that wasps nests are made from wood? They chew up tree fibers, add saliva and turn it into a paper type material. I’m glad we don’t have to do that to build a home.
I finally put my Christmas tree up this weekend. We have an artificial one that is in three sections with the lights attached. I used to have a really big one that was seven and a half feet tall. You had to put each individual limb on and there were like ten rows. It was really pretty and looked like a real one but took forever. A couple of years a go I got rid of that one and bought a smaller one. This tree is about six feet tall and not near as big around but much easier to assemble.
If not for trees we wouldn’t have all of these things so next time you are cursing those leaves you rake or thinking about cutting down a tree because it’s in your way remember all of the things trees give us. Shade, a home for birds, the house we live in and our Christmas trees.
And if you have an Iphone, David Choi has figured out how to play Oh Christmas Tree on it. Sounds pretty good.
