Little Trees are disposable air fresheners shaped like a stylized evergreen tree, marketed for use in motor vehicles, and most commonly seen hanging from rear-view mirrors. They are made of an absorbent material produced in a variety of colors and scents. Little Trees were invented in 1952 in Watertown, New York, by Julius Sämann, a German-Jewish chemist and businessman who had fled the Nazis. He had studied Alpine tree aromas in the forests of Canada and was interested in the biological mechanisms used to transport and disseminate them. Little Trees air fresheners are manufactured in the United States by the Car-Freshner Corporation at factories (such as Royal Pine) in Watertown, New York and DeWitt, Iowa. Several companies in Europe produce Little Trees under license from Julius Sämann Ltd. using the names Wunder-Baum (in Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Hungary and Sweden) and Arbre Magique (in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, and Spain). It was formerly known as Magic Tree in the United Kingdom until the "Little Tree" name was adopted in 2011. The company is known for pursuing lawsuits to protect its trademark.

Trademark

Car-Freshner fiercely defends its trademark of the tree-shaped air freshener design, and has filed several lawsuits against makers of lookalike products and against companies that use their products in other commercial media.

In popular culture

British artist Jack Williams, the son of a car salesman, created ‘‘Forest’’, a 2009 installation using 350 Royal Pine air fresheners, hung in a square configuration from the ceiling via fishing wire. In the I Am Weasel episode Power of Odor, the atmosphere of a city is being compromised by the stench of pigs owned by I.R. Baboon. The city's mayor tries to take on the smell as he walks into the scene with a tree-shaped air freshener tied to his nose. But the stench proves too powerful when his air freshener turns into soot. In the Sloth scene in the 1995 film Seven, several 'Little Tree' air-fresheners were suspended in a room to mask the smell of the emaciated body.

Legality

In the United States, many states have regulations concerning obstructed view, objects hanging from the rear-view mirror, obstructed windshield, or similar legislation. Citations and/or custodial arrests for violations of such statutes are not unknown.