Plants are very important for us. They provide us fresh fruits, wood, natural herbs and many things of professional value.
They are home to numerous wildlife, bugs and creatures. They provide colour to men and creatures. They prevent famine and cause rain fall. They help in verifying polluting the environment. They provide us fresh air to take in and play essential role in the process of CO2. So, we should increase forestation.
Wood is the most effective product that trees provide us with. We use wooden often. Wood is used as petrol and wood. Wood is used to make furnishings. Wood is also used to lay the paths of the railways. Plants are excellent sources of therapeutic natural herbs, ribbons and raw materials for many sectors. We get resins, organic gum area, etc. from the trees.
The bamboo sheets bedding is an essential wide range of shrub which develops in large quantity. It is of excellent professional value. It is found everywhere. It is used as building content to make short-term shed. It is an essential resource of protection for the poor and financially sluggish individuals. Bamboo is used to make pads, barrier, bag and various products of the crafts. Bamboo is used as raw content to make paper.
Cane is another wide range of shrub which is used in many things. Mats, rules and furnishings are created from the cane. Furniture created of cane is highly creative, wonderful and costly. Lac is one of the most effective woodland products of Indian. It is used to make bracelets and other useful products. We get honey from bees. Though honey is produced by bees, bees flourish on trees. Plants serve as decayed plant material to different creatures. Many bugs, wildlife and creatures live on trees.
Babul, Dhaora, Salat, Kulu and Bigasal are some types of trees which generate gum. Gum is used differently and is also exported in different countries. It is an excellent resource of international trading. We get turpentine from maple trees. It is used in colour and varnish industry. The kendu simply foliage is used for biri creating. It provides employment to many individuals particularly in non-urban areas. Besides, they are excellent resource of income for the state government authorities.
Trees help in maintaining the libido of ground. They check ground loss. They help in food shortage and flood control. Plants cause rain fall. They maintain ecological balance. They help in cleaning the environment. They are excellent resource of fresh air. We take in fresh air and take in out co2. We get fresh air from the trees and they process the co2 that we breathe out. Plants add to the organic charm.
Unfortunately, trees are being cut simultaneously. Fast industrialization, urbanization and population growth have provided to the decrease in trees. In this way we have done excellent reduction to ourselves.It is the weeping need of the hour to plant more and more trees. Plants are very useful organic material. We should preserve them. We should increase forestation. This is excellent for larger benefit of community.
No one has actually bothered to give the word “tree” a specific definition. As it turns out, there’s quite a lot about trees that the average person doesn’t know. Trees are far more than their basic definition, and they just might surprise you.
Have you ever wanted to sit on an enormous tree trunk and slide out of control down the side of a mountain? What a ridiculous question—of course you have. During the Onbashira festival that occurs every six years in Japan, they do just that—and have been for the last 1,200 years. The trunks are used as pillars at the corners of local shrines, but custom dictates they be replaced every time the Chinese zodiac year of the monkey or tiger rolls around (yes, even though they’re Japanese).
The logs are chosen from fir trees, which are felled and dragged by hand to their destination. When a slope is reached, local men hop aboard and careen to the bottom to test their bravery. The process is as dangerous as it sounds, with people regularly being injured and killed. Despite this, it’s incredibly popular, attracting over half a million attendees. The dramatic hill riding is just one part of the several-month process of moving the logs, which is filled with numerous festivities.
You might know that aspirin was originally developed from willow bark, but it’s certainly not the only plant-related drug. As with all plants, trees are a rich source of various biological compounds, so it makes sense that we’d be able to find a few chemicals that are useful to us. Some chemotherapy drugs are made from yew clippings, and if you live in the UK and have a yew tree you aren’t using, you can even donate some of it.
Another drug produced from trees is ecstasy. In Cambodia, a tree known as “mreah prew phnom,” which has no common English name, has become critically endangered due to the illegal drug trade. Four of the trees produce a barrel of safrole oil, an ingredient that is synthesized into pills in laboratories.
The process is dangerous—the distilleries needed to extract oil from the trees’ roots are known to explode. In addition, the environmental impact is devastating. Not only is the tree critically endangered, but the the Cambodian forests being stripped are host to other threatened species, such as the Asian elephant, a concern that oddly seems to have slipped the minds of ferocious drug cartels.
One of the key environmental themes to bear in mind with all this talk of illegal logging and the illegal prevention of logging is the impact on the wider planet. Conventional wisdom is that cutting down trees will accelerate global warming. It makes sense—trees take in carbon from the atmosphere, and as they’re destroyed, that carbon is returned. But, as is often the case, reality is more complicated.
Scientists from UC Davis conducted a study that found that if forests are lost north of 45 degrees latitude—north of Montana in the US or Bordeaux in France—the net effect would actually cool the planet. This is due to the fact that forests absorb heat from the sun during the day and retain it at night, while clear areas with snow reflect the sun’s energy back into space. However, the scientists are keen to point out that forests have other benefits, so there’s no need to put your newfound tree-sitting plans on hold just yet.
Ash dieback is a tree disease currently spreading rapidly throughout the UK. Some experts think London’s trees could be devastated if the outbreak reaches the city. Scientists have taken to mobile technology and social media to aid in the fight the disease. In 2012, they launched the puntastically named AshTag, an app that allowed people to photograph and report the location of diseased trees.
A more novel crowdsourcing effort is the Facebook game Fraxinus. The game uses genetic data from trees to create puzzles, and solving them actually involves processing the data in a way that can speed up the discovery of what we need to know to breed trees with a resistance to the disease. It’s estimated that it could cut decades off the time it would’ve taken normally, so why not have a go? You might as well. Reaching level 350 of Candy Crush isn’t going to cure cancer, is it?
There’s an official Guinness World Record for “World’s Most Dangerous Tree,” and it’s held by the manchineel tree from the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. The manchineel’s bark is covered in sap that causes skin to blister and can blind a person if it gets in their eyes. Even standing under the tree in the rain can cause blisters because the sap will drip onto skin.
The tree’s fruit, known as the “beach apple” or “death apple,” is slightly sweet but very painful to eat. Ulceration of the mouth and esophagus will occur from just a small bite and consumption can be lethal. Smoke from burning manchineel wood can cause blindness, and the sap has historically been used to coat arrows for hunting. Today it’s an endangered species in Florida.
The religious significance of trees in the West nowadays tends to be reserved for Christmas. Historically, trees have been popular symbols of fertility and growth. Their majesty, combined with the seasonal display representing death and rebirth makes trees a natural choice for symbolism. Also, they look so darn pretty smothered in tinsel and twinkly lights.
In India, more traditional tree worshiping persists to this day. The sacred fig, or Ficus religiosa, shows its purpose with both its English and Latin names. It’s one of several trees revered in Hinduism, originating from a belief that trees had some level of sentience. Leaves and other parts of trees play a role in prayer and religious ceremonies throughout India.
The tree Sri Maha Bodhil is the oldest surviving tree whose planting date we know. It was planted in 288 B.C. and can be found in a Sri Lankan temple. It represents happiness and everything else that makes for a long, good life.
The town of Rikuzentakata, on the east coast of Japan, was almost completely destroyed during the 2011 tsunami. Though the town was home to fewer than 30,000 people, over 2,000 were killed there, a tenth of the tsunami’s total victims. Before the disaster, the town’s coastline was home to 70,000 pine trees, which were designated an official “Place of Scenic Beauty.” After the wave hit, only a single tree remained alive.
The 250-year-old pine, naturally dubbed a “miracle,” survived the initial destruction, but exposure to salt water killed its roots. Experts removed the tree and created synthetic roots, along with a metal skeleton, to keep it alive. The tree served as a symbol of hope for the shattered community, and the town’s mayor, made a widower by the tsunami, was quoted as saying, “the miracle pine gave us the strength and hope to carry on living.”
Stealing trees has got to be a hassle. Trees are quite large, and if they’re not, then they’re hardly worth stealing in the first place. You need resources to steal a tree, yet it’s a surprisingly common crime for one reason: Wood is big money.
A report from 1996 showed that $1 million worth of lumber was stolen each month in Washington State alone. More recently, thieves in Canada stole a massive, 800-year-old cedar tree in a heist that required heavy-duty logging equipment. This wasn’t an isolated incident, and it’s a big problem for US national parks.
Science, as usual, has provided a handy tool for catching these thieves. As living organisms, trees have DNA fingerprints the same way people do. Investigators in Indiana were able to match the DNA of a stump to logs at a lumber mill. Unfortunately, many land owners don’t notice their trees have gone missing for a long time, so poachers are unlikely to be put off.
On December 10, 1997, environmental activist Julia Hill climbed a redwood tree in California to protest logging practices by the Pacific Lumber Company. She stayed there until December 23, 1999, setting a record for the longest tree sit. Tree sitting, which is pretty much what it sounds like, is a popular form of protest with environmentalists around the world.
Tree sitting is popular mainly because it’s difficult to arrest and evict people when they’re so far above the ground. Tree sitters will often link several trees together with ropes to create a village of sorts, and locals aren’t averse to flocking to their aid with supplies. The protest is such an effective nuisance that Oregon recently passed a law allowing logging companies to sue protesters, though a similar law that would make tree sitting a felony punishable by up to five years in prison failed to get past the Senate.
In 1971, astronaut Stuart Roosa took 500 seeds aboard Apollo 14 as part of his personal luggage. In his earlier life, Roosa had been a smoke jumper, someone who parachutes into burning forests to fight fires (people with the balls of astronauts had to find something to do before space travel came along).
The US Forestry Service gave the seeds to Roosa to take with him because of his earlier career. The seeds orbited the moon 34 times aboard Apollo 14′s command module—Roosa never walked on the moon himself. When he returned to Earth, the seeds were planted, and five years later, saplings were sent all around the country (and even overseas) as part of American bicentennial celebrations.
Shortly after that, everyone forgot about them. It wasn’t until 1997 that they were rediscovered—by a bunch of schoolkids. Cannelton Elementary School in Indiana had a tree on their grounds with a “Moon Tree” plaque, but no idea what that meant. They called NASA, and no one there had any idea either. Their inquiries prompted scientist Dave Williams to do some digging, and he was able to root out the tree’s history. He’s since collected details on over 50 of them. There are likely hundreds more around the world, so if you know of any, you can email him and help reconstruct a piece of history.
For those of you seeking the key to tree superpowers and thinking “outer space,” we’re sorry to inform you that the moon trees have been compared with trees from their sibling seeds that never left Earth and found to be no different.
8. A balance of carbon and oxygen
A single 30-meter-tall mature tree can absorb as much as 22.7 kilograms (50 pounds) of carbon dioxide in a year, which over it’s lifetime is approximately the same amount as would be produced by an average car being driven 41,500 kilometers (25,787 miles). The same tree could also produce 2,721 kilograms (5,998.78 pounds) of oxygen in a year, which is enough to support at least two people. According to the University of Melbourne, because trees grow faster the older they get, their capacity for photosynthesis and carbon sequestration increases as they age.
5. Saving energy and money
Most people know that trees near buildings can raise property prices by an average of 14 percent in the U.K. and as much as up to 37 percent in the U.S. But trees can also have an impact on the energy used for heating and cooling a building, reducing air conditioning costs by as much as 30 percent and saving 20 to 50 percent on energy for heating. This is because as well as providing shade, a large tree can also transpire as much as 378.5 liters (100 gallons) of water into the air per day. This has a cooling effect roughly equivalent to 10 single room-sized air conditioning units operating 20 hours a day!
There is a theory that the evolution of tall, woody, flowering trees
(angiosperms) might have played a pivotal role in the extinction of the
dinosaurs. It is believed, by some, that the speed at which flowering
plants evolved on Earth (possibly spurred on by rapid climate change)
occurred too quickly for dinosaurs to adapt their diets. Flowering
plants are better at producing oxygen. With the rapid increase in
flowering plants, scientists suggest that the metabolism of large
herbivorous dinosaurs might have increased to the point that they could
not eat enough food to sustain their increased metabolism.
3. Self-defense and communication Trees are masters of both self-defense and communication. Scientists have found that when attacked by insects, trees can flood their leaves with chemicals called phenolics. These noxious compounds are distasteful to tree pests and can even impede their growth. What’s amazing is that once a tree is attacked, it will “signal” to other nearby trees to also start their self-defense, before they are attacked! Methods of communication include releasing chemicals into the wind and possibly even sending chemical or electric signals through the michorizal network of roots (a network of shared fungus fibers).
2. The biggest and the best
Contrary to popular belief, the tallest trees in the world are actually the Coast or Californian Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens), and not the Giant Redwoods or Wellingtonia (Sequoiadendron giganteum). Even though both species of trees are sometimes referred to as Giant Redwoods, the
Sequoia grows slightly taller, with the tallest recorded at 115.7 meters (379.7 feet). This behemoth, called “Hyperion”, can be found in Redwood National Park, California, (although its exact location is not disclosed for fear of vandalism).
1. The oldest living thing on Earth
The oldest living organism on Earth is believed to be the “Pando” colony of Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides) in Utah, also known as the Trembling Giant. The colony of trees covers some 41.7 hectares (103 acres) and is estimated to weigh nearly 6,000,000 kilograms (6,600 tons), making it also the heaviest known organism. Being a clonal colony, the tree “trunks” all share identical genetic makeup. It is estimated that parts of the inter-connected root stock that links the colony together is in excess of 80,000 years old!
There are many interesting facts about
trees. You probably know most of the more common facts, but did you know
about tree communication or about the oldest living tree on Earth?
Save trees save the planet earth !
Regards
Mohan.v.krishna
They are home to numerous wildlife, bugs and creatures. They provide colour to men and creatures. They prevent famine and cause rain fall. They help in verifying polluting the environment. They provide us fresh air to take in and play essential role in the process of CO2. So, we should increase forestation.
Wood is the most effective product that trees provide us with. We use wooden often. Wood is used as petrol and wood. Wood is used to make furnishings. Wood is also used to lay the paths of the railways. Plants are excellent sources of therapeutic natural herbs, ribbons and raw materials for many sectors. We get resins, organic gum area, etc. from the trees.
The bamboo sheets bedding is an essential wide range of shrub which develops in large quantity. It is of excellent professional value. It is found everywhere. It is used as building content to make short-term shed. It is an essential resource of protection for the poor and financially sluggish individuals. Bamboo is used to make pads, barrier, bag and various products of the crafts. Bamboo is used as raw content to make paper.
Cane is another wide range of shrub which is used in many things. Mats, rules and furnishings are created from the cane. Furniture created of cane is highly creative, wonderful and costly. Lac is one of the most effective woodland products of Indian. It is used to make bracelets and other useful products. We get honey from bees. Though honey is produced by bees, bees flourish on trees. Plants serve as decayed plant material to different creatures. Many bugs, wildlife and creatures live on trees.
Babul, Dhaora, Salat, Kulu and Bigasal are some types of trees which generate gum. Gum is used differently and is also exported in different countries. It is an excellent resource of international trading. We get turpentine from maple trees. It is used in colour and varnish industry. The kendu simply foliage is used for biri creating. It provides employment to many individuals particularly in non-urban areas. Besides, they are excellent resource of income for the state government authorities.
Trees help in maintaining the libido of ground. They check ground loss. They help in food shortage and flood control. Plants cause rain fall. They maintain ecological balance. They help in cleaning the environment. They are excellent resource of fresh air. We take in fresh air and take in out co2. We get fresh air from the trees and they process the co2 that we breathe out. Plants add to the organic charm.
Unfortunately, trees are being cut simultaneously. Fast industrialization, urbanization and population growth have provided to the decrease in trees. In this way we have done excellent reduction to ourselves.It is the weeping need of the hour to plant more and more trees. Plants are very useful organic material. We should preserve them. We should increase forestation. This is excellent for larger benefit of community.
No one has actually bothered to give the word “tree” a specific definition. As it turns out, there’s quite a lot about trees that the average person doesn’t know. Trees are far more than their basic definition, and they just might surprise you.
10 Onbashira
Have you ever wanted to sit on an enormous tree trunk and slide out of control down the side of a mountain? What a ridiculous question—of course you have. During the Onbashira festival that occurs every six years in Japan, they do just that—and have been for the last 1,200 years. The trunks are used as pillars at the corners of local shrines, but custom dictates they be replaced every time the Chinese zodiac year of the monkey or tiger rolls around (yes, even though they’re Japanese).
The logs are chosen from fir trees, which are felled and dragged by hand to their destination. When a slope is reached, local men hop aboard and careen to the bottom to test their bravery. The process is as dangerous as it sounds, with people regularly being injured and killed. Despite this, it’s incredibly popular, attracting over half a million attendees. The dramatic hill riding is just one part of the several-month process of moving the logs, which is filled with numerous festivities.
9 Drugs From Trees
You might know that aspirin was originally developed from willow bark, but it’s certainly not the only plant-related drug. As with all plants, trees are a rich source of various biological compounds, so it makes sense that we’d be able to find a few chemicals that are useful to us. Some chemotherapy drugs are made from yew clippings, and if you live in the UK and have a yew tree you aren’t using, you can even donate some of it.
Another drug produced from trees is ecstasy. In Cambodia, a tree known as “mreah prew phnom,” which has no common English name, has become critically endangered due to the illegal drug trade. Four of the trees produce a barrel of safrole oil, an ingredient that is synthesized into pills in laboratories.
The process is dangerous—the distilleries needed to extract oil from the trees’ roots are known to explode. In addition, the environmental impact is devastating. Not only is the tree critically endangered, but the the Cambodian forests being stripped are host to other threatened species, such as the Asian elephant, a concern that oddly seems to have slipped the minds of ferocious drug cartels.
8 Deforestation Could Reduce Global Warming
One of the key environmental themes to bear in mind with all this talk of illegal logging and the illegal prevention of logging is the impact on the wider planet. Conventional wisdom is that cutting down trees will accelerate global warming. It makes sense—trees take in carbon from the atmosphere, and as they’re destroyed, that carbon is returned. But, as is often the case, reality is more complicated.
Scientists from UC Davis conducted a study that found that if forests are lost north of 45 degrees latitude—north of Montana in the US or Bordeaux in France—the net effect would actually cool the planet. This is due to the fact that forests absorb heat from the sun during the day and retain it at night, while clear areas with snow reflect the sun’s energy back into space. However, the scientists are keen to point out that forests have other benefits, so there’s no need to put your newfound tree-sitting plans on hold just yet.
7 Tree Disease Fought With Computer Game
Ash dieback is a tree disease currently spreading rapidly throughout the UK. Some experts think London’s trees could be devastated if the outbreak reaches the city. Scientists have taken to mobile technology and social media to aid in the fight the disease. In 2012, they launched the puntastically named AshTag, an app that allowed people to photograph and report the location of diseased trees.
A more novel crowdsourcing effort is the Facebook game Fraxinus. The game uses genetic data from trees to create puzzles, and solving them actually involves processing the data in a way that can speed up the discovery of what we need to know to breed trees with a resistance to the disease. It’s estimated that it could cut decades off the time it would’ve taken normally, so why not have a go? You might as well. Reaching level 350 of Candy Crush isn’t going to cure cancer, is it?
6 Most Dangerous Tree
There’s an official Guinness World Record for “World’s Most Dangerous Tree,” and it’s held by the manchineel tree from the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. The manchineel’s bark is covered in sap that causes skin to blister and can blind a person if it gets in their eyes. Even standing under the tree in the rain can cause blisters because the sap will drip onto skin.
The tree’s fruit, known as the “beach apple” or “death apple,” is slightly sweet but very painful to eat. Ulceration of the mouth and esophagus will occur from just a small bite and consumption can be lethal. Smoke from burning manchineel wood can cause blindness, and the sap has historically been used to coat arrows for hunting. Today it’s an endangered species in Florida.
5 Tree Worship
The religious significance of trees in the West nowadays tends to be reserved for Christmas. Historically, trees have been popular symbols of fertility and growth. Their majesty, combined with the seasonal display representing death and rebirth makes trees a natural choice for symbolism. Also, they look so darn pretty smothered in tinsel and twinkly lights.
In India, more traditional tree worshiping persists to this day. The sacred fig, or Ficus religiosa, shows its purpose with both its English and Latin names. It’s one of several trees revered in Hinduism, originating from a belief that trees had some level of sentience. Leaves and other parts of trees play a role in prayer and religious ceremonies throughout India.
The tree Sri Maha Bodhil is the oldest surviving tree whose planting date we know. It was planted in 288 B.C. and can be found in a Sri Lankan temple. It represents happiness and everything else that makes for a long, good life.
4 Japanese Miracle Pine
The town of Rikuzentakata, on the east coast of Japan, was almost completely destroyed during the 2011 tsunami. Though the town was home to fewer than 30,000 people, over 2,000 were killed there, a tenth of the tsunami’s total victims. Before the disaster, the town’s coastline was home to 70,000 pine trees, which were designated an official “Place of Scenic Beauty.” After the wave hit, only a single tree remained alive.
The 250-year-old pine, naturally dubbed a “miracle,” survived the initial destruction, but exposure to salt water killed its roots. Experts removed the tree and created synthetic roots, along with a metal skeleton, to keep it alive. The tree served as a symbol of hope for the shattered community, and the town’s mayor, made a widower by the tsunami, was quoted as saying, “the miracle pine gave us the strength and hope to carry on living.”
3 Tree Poaching
Stealing trees has got to be a hassle. Trees are quite large, and if they’re not, then they’re hardly worth stealing in the first place. You need resources to steal a tree, yet it’s a surprisingly common crime for one reason: Wood is big money.
A report from 1996 showed that $1 million worth of lumber was stolen each month in Washington State alone. More recently, thieves in Canada stole a massive, 800-year-old cedar tree in a heist that required heavy-duty logging equipment. This wasn’t an isolated incident, and it’s a big problem for US national parks.
Science, as usual, has provided a handy tool for catching these thieves. As living organisms, trees have DNA fingerprints the same way people do. Investigators in Indiana were able to match the DNA of a stump to logs at a lumber mill. Unfortunately, many land owners don’t notice their trees have gone missing for a long time, so poachers are unlikely to be put off.
2 Tree Sitting
On December 10, 1997, environmental activist Julia Hill climbed a redwood tree in California to protest logging practices by the Pacific Lumber Company. She stayed there until December 23, 1999, setting a record for the longest tree sit. Tree sitting, which is pretty much what it sounds like, is a popular form of protest with environmentalists around the world.
Tree sitting is popular mainly because it’s difficult to arrest and evict people when they’re so far above the ground. Tree sitters will often link several trees together with ropes to create a village of sorts, and locals aren’t averse to flocking to their aid with supplies. The protest is such an effective nuisance that Oregon recently passed a law allowing logging companies to sue protesters, though a similar law that would make tree sitting a felony punishable by up to five years in prison failed to get past the Senate.
1 Moon Trees
In 1971, astronaut Stuart Roosa took 500 seeds aboard Apollo 14 as part of his personal luggage. In his earlier life, Roosa had been a smoke jumper, someone who parachutes into burning forests to fight fires (people with the balls of astronauts had to find something to do before space travel came along).
The US Forestry Service gave the seeds to Roosa to take with him because of his earlier career. The seeds orbited the moon 34 times aboard Apollo 14′s command module—Roosa never walked on the moon himself. When he returned to Earth, the seeds were planted, and five years later, saplings were sent all around the country (and even overseas) as part of American bicentennial celebrations.
Shortly after that, everyone forgot about them. It wasn’t until 1997 that they were rediscovered—by a bunch of schoolkids. Cannelton Elementary School in Indiana had a tree on their grounds with a “Moon Tree” plaque, but no idea what that meant. They called NASA, and no one there had any idea either. Their inquiries prompted scientist Dave Williams to do some digging, and he was able to root out the tree’s history. He’s since collected details on over 50 of them. There are likely hundreds more around the world, so if you know of any, you can email him and help reconstruct a piece of history.
For those of you seeking the key to tree superpowers and thinking “outer space,” we’re sorry to inform you that the moon trees have been compared with trees from their sibling seeds that never left Earth and found to be no different.
8. A balance of carbon and oxygen
A single 30-meter-tall mature tree can absorb as much as 22.7 kilograms (50 pounds) of carbon dioxide in a year, which over it’s lifetime is approximately the same amount as would be produced by an average car being driven 41,500 kilometers (25,787 miles). The same tree could also produce 2,721 kilograms (5,998.78 pounds) of oxygen in a year, which is enough to support at least two people. According to the University of Melbourne, because trees grow faster the older they get, their capacity for photosynthesis and carbon sequestration increases as they age.
Eucalyptus tree forest in Thailand; credit: Wuttichok Painichiwarapun / shutterstock.com. modification by SDR
7. Trees and wildlife
You probably knew that trees were good for wildlife, but did you know just how good? For example, the common English Oak (Quercus robur)
can support hundreds of different species, including 284 species of
insect and 324 taxa (species, sub-species, and varieties) of lichens
living directly on the tree. These in turn provide food for numerous
birds and small mammals. The acorns of oak trees (which don’t usually
appear until the tree is around 40 years old) are food for dozens of
species, including wild boar (and now more commonly pigs), jays,
pigeons, pheasants, ducks, squirrels, mice, badgers, and deer.
The Oak tree is a home for many, don’t you forget it; image credit: shutterstock.com. modification by SDR
6. Who needs a compass?
When lost, it is possible to use trees to assist you in navigation.
In northern temperate climates, moss will grow on the northern side of
the tree trunk, where it is shadier. Failing that, if you find a tree
that has been cut down, you can observe the rings of the tree to
discover which direction north is. In the northern hemisphere, the rings
of growth in a tree trunk are slightly thicker on the southern side,
which receives more light. The converse is true in the southern
hemisphere.
This could save your life; credit: Lorenzo Tonello / shutterstock.com, modification by SDR
Most people know that trees near buildings can raise property prices by an average of 14 percent in the U.K. and as much as up to 37 percent in the U.S. But trees can also have an impact on the energy used for heating and cooling a building, reducing air conditioning costs by as much as 30 percent and saving 20 to 50 percent on energy for heating. This is because as well as providing shade, a large tree can also transpire as much as 378.5 liters (100 gallons) of water into the air per day. This has a cooling effect roughly equivalent to 10 single room-sized air conditioning units operating 20 hours a day!
Trees increase value and save money; image credit: shutterstock.com, modification by SDR
4. Did trees really kill the dinosaurs?
Did the trees do it?
3. Self-defense and communication Trees are masters of both self-defense and communication. Scientists have found that when attacked by insects, trees can flood their leaves with chemicals called phenolics. These noxious compounds are distasteful to tree pests and can even impede their growth. What’s amazing is that once a tree is attacked, it will “signal” to other nearby trees to also start their self-defense, before they are attacked! Methods of communication include releasing chemicals into the wind and possibly even sending chemical or electric signals through the michorizal network of roots (a network of shared fungus fibers).
Chemical signals are sent out to warn the other trees; credit: tr3gin / shutterstock.com, modification by SDR
Contrary to popular belief, the tallest trees in the world are actually the Coast or Californian Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens), and not the Giant Redwoods or Wellingtonia (Sequoiadendron giganteum). Even though both species of trees are sometimes referred to as Giant Redwoods, the
Sequoia grows slightly taller, with the tallest recorded at 115.7 meters (379.7 feet). This behemoth, called “Hyperion”, can be found in Redwood National Park, California, (although its exact location is not disclosed for fear of vandalism).
1. The oldest living thing on Earth
The oldest living organism on Earth is believed to be the “Pando” colony of Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides) in Utah, also known as the Trembling Giant. The colony of trees covers some 41.7 hectares (103 acres) and is estimated to weigh nearly 6,000,000 kilograms (6,600 tons), making it also the heaviest known organism. Being a clonal colony, the tree “trunks” all share identical genetic makeup. It is estimated that parts of the inter-connected root stock that links the colony together is in excess of 80,000 years old!
Aspen trees with fall color;
Save trees save the planet earth !
Regards
Mohan.v.krishna
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