Why Aren’t Most Trees Flammable In The Original Legend of Zelda?

Okay, I promise this is the last post about the old 8-bit NES Legend of Zelda. However, before I leave this topic, why are so few trees flammable in this world? As anyone who has played the game knows, there are a few special trees that you can burn with the candle (or magic rod). However, most are utterly unaffected.

So…why? What are these trees all made out of that they can’t burn (a similar question can be raised as to why some rocks can be blown up whereas others can’t)? Asbestos?

Of course, I know that the reason only certain trees burn is that the others weren’t programmed for any reaction. It was plain programming economy. However, it didn’t need to be. They could just have had them burn to nothing. Then, when Link left the screen far enough, they could just reappear like the enemies do.

It wouldn’t seem like such a weird thing, if there weren’t a few trees (identical to all the other ones) that DO burn. It just seems like such a simple thing to have programmed. I just wonder why they didn’t bother.