Source: Martha Waggoner, NEWS & OBSERVER, 12/17/16


When Lilian Matallana checks for the freshness of a Fraser fir, she rubs the branches just like any conscientious Christmas tree buyer would. The difference is that Matallana has hundreds of branches in her aromatic lab at North Carolina State University, where she's part of a team researching ways to help Christmas trees keep their needles longer in hopes of making them more attractive to buyers.

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