#tree facts

[a-tangled-mermaid]

My partner assures me this is common knowledge but I am stubbornly refusing to believe him. I just found out that cinnamon is tree bark and it's blowing my mind. I love plants. Plants are so cool. Like what do you MEAN I could just chew on a cinnamon tree branch and it would be actual straight up cinnamon? The pictures of harvested cinnamon trees are NUTS. I am so fascinated.

Don't ask me what I thought it was. I have no answer. But I do know my answer was not tree bark.

[borbersk]

Here's a less than fun fact for you:

The ash tree, fraxinus excelsior, is being wiped out by a disease called ash dieback. It's an airborne fungal infection that kills the tree off from the outside in.

It was spreading across mainland Europe back in 2011, when coilte, the irish semi-state body dedicated to "forestry" sent ash saplings to the Netherlands because their nurseries were overstocked with sitka spruce, a non-native cash crop they've been destroying our landscape with

Well, ash dieback was first detected in Ireland in 2012, when we got those saplings back, and still hasn't been detected in England, which you'd expect from a disease like that if it was coming from Europe.

But I'm sure that's just a coincidence and coilte would never bring something that damaging into the country, destroying the population of a hugely culturally significant tree for a tiny amount of profit

Edit: check this video out for more info

https://youtu.be/vCXPZNMDbDw

@tree-offical

[wtf-fun-factss]

It can take 80 years for a Saguaro cactus to grow its first arm. Click to read the full fact.

[grand-zammy]

🌲🌲 HAPPY NATIONAL TREE DAY 🌲🌲

If you know an interesting tree fact, please share with everyone else so maybe we can all learn something new.

For some reason, I thought pineapples grew from trees like any other fruit. You know, maybe hanging off a tall tree separately from each other (kinda like coconuts?) but boy was I wrong!

They grow like a bush with the fruit coming out of the top of the plant!!

Apparently they take almost 3 years for a single fruit to fully mature from just a seed and are typically harvested between March thru July (in Hawaii, specifically.)

[pinkpiggy93]

Flower witch chapter 5: there’s a ghost on the frangipan tree

A fun fact about this beautiful tree is that is has yin energy which is why it often attracts ghosts and people are advised to not plant this tree in front of their house.

However in office places, for example the Vietnam fine art museum that my mother works in, there are trees like this and indeed ghosts. People give offerings to these ghosts on some occasions so that the ghosts wouldn’t disturb them and their business. True story.

There are also similar stories about banyan trees and you often see them in pagodas or temples because the gods residing in the temples can tame the ghosts residing in the banyan tree. Some say big banyan trees are also where powerful spirits live and that people should not do harm to them or they would receive be consequences.

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Nekocat

Flower witch chapter 6: a ghost’s story This is the story of how the ghost named Xuân Vũ (meaning Spring Rain) became a ghost. Fun fact, thi

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Flower witch chapter 4: ghost hunting at night As the two took on the case, they share a bit of their world to each other. At this point Hoa

[chey-murray]

Did You Know: Trees “Communicate?” 

If you are new to learning about this, you may be surprised that trees share carbon, and even favor their own children. Now before you call me crazy and leave, this is backed by science, I promise.

This starts with Suzanne Simard, a Canadian ecologist. In her research, she bagged the above-ground portions of several wild trees to isolate them, then injected some of them with tracer isotope carbon dioxide gases. If she later used her Gieger counter and found that a plant she never injected had a reading, that would mean that the plants were sharing through fungi networks.

It turns out they were sharing, and not just sharing, but doing it selectively. For example, during times when the fir trees were still growing but the birch were leafless, the fir would send more carbon to the birch compared to other times in the year.

"I found that most was in the birch and fir. Just by looking at the data, I could determine there was communication going on between them." Suzanne Simard in the article Secrets of a tree whisperer: ‘They get along, they listen – they’re attuned’

And it was not just mutually beneficial competition, either, there was also favoritism. It turns out the mother trees recognize their own young, and not only do they spread out underground to reduce root competition for their kids, but they also send their kids more carbon than other seedlings of the same species. This increases the chance of survival of her kids.

On top of all that, if a mother tree is dying, she will send out a mixture of carbon and defense signals. Those defense signals act as instructions on how to deal with stresses and can make the seedlings stronger.

So how do the trees do all that? With fungi! When we think fungi, we tend to think mushrooms, but the mushroom is just a small part of the fungi. Most of the fungi are underground and look like tiny thread-like roots, and is called Mycelium.

That mycelium weaves through the soil, and infects the roots of trees and plants. In turn, trees use this network to their benefit by sending carbon to their roots, through the mycelium, and to the roots of another tree. This is nicknamed the Wood Wide Web.

So, the next time you are walking through a forest, know that below your feet, there is a complex network of communication happening between trees.

If you want to learn more about this, Suzanne Simard has a YouTube video here, and a book titled Finding the Mother Tree. For a quick video explanation with more information, here are some videos:

[rockislandadultreads]

Trees! Read All About Them!: Books to Check Out

The Tree Forager: 40 Extraordinary Trees & What to Do with Them by Adele Nozedar

Foraging is one of the fastest-growing nature-related pastimes in the UK and US. There are many books about foraging but this is the only one that focuses on what is arguably everyone’s favourite plant – trees! It profiles 40 incredible trees from the UK and US – from apple, ash and bay to walnut, willow and yew, gorgeously illustrated with watercolour, pen and ink botanical illustrations. In her humorous, inspiring and warm text, Adele explains how we can forage from our trees, not only for food, but also for home remedies, for ingredients to use in cocktails and ferments, and for materials to make toys, musical instruments and other useful things. Did you know that you can grind acorns into flour to make pancakes, for example, or use oak galls for ink? Or that Willow can be used for weaving; ash, hazel and oak are all good for making charcoal. Packed full of recipes and things to do, there is also a sprinkling of folklore and superstition, as well as helpful recognition tips. Overall it traces the fascinating story of the intimate relationship between humankind and our trees.

The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring by Richard Preston

From the #1 bestselling author of The Hot Zone comes an amazing account of scientific and spiritual passion for the tallest trees in the world, the startling biosystem of Rthe canopy, S and those who are committed to the preservation of this astonishing and largely unknown world.

The Heartbeat of Trees: Embracing Our Ancient Bond with Forests and Nature by Peter Wohlleben, Jane Billinghurst (Translator)

A powerful return to the forest, where trees have heartbeats and roots are like brains that extend underground. Where the color green calms us, and the forest sharpens our senses. In The Heartbeat of Trees, renowned forester Peter Wohlleben draws on new scientific discoveries to show how humans are deeply connected to the natural world.In an era of cell phone addiction, climate change, and urban life, many of us fear we've lost our connection to nature--but Peter Wohlleben is convinced that age-old ties linking humans to the forest remain alive and intact. Drawing on science and cutting-edge research, The Heartbeat of Trees reveals the profound interactions humans can have with nature, exploring: the language of the forest the consciousness of plants and the eroding boundary between flora and fauna. A perfect book to take with you into the woods, The Heartbeat of Trees shares how to see, feel, smell, hear, and even taste the forest. Peter Wohlleben, renowned for his ability to write about trees in an engaging and moving way, reveals a wondrous cosmos where humans are a part of nature, and where conservation and environmental activism is not just about saving trees--it's about saving ourselves, too.

Lives of the Trees: An Uncommon History by Diana Wells

Diana Wells, author of 100 Flowers and How They Got Their Names now turns her attention to something bigger—our deep-rooted relationship with trees. As she investigates the names and meanings of trees, telling their legends and lore, she reminds us of just how innately bound we are to these protectors of our planet. Since the human race began, we have depended on them for food, shade, shelter and fuel, not to mention furniture, musical instruments, medicine utensils and more. Wells has a remarkable ability to dig up the curious and the captivating: At one time, a worm found in a hazelnut prognosticated ill fortune. Rowan trees were planted in churchyards to prevent the dead from rising from their graves. Greek arrows were soaked in deadly yew, and Shakespeare’s witches in Macbeth used “Gall of goat and slips of Yew” to make their lethal brew. One bristlecone pine, at about 4,700 years old, is thought to be the oldest living plant on earth. All this and more can be found in the beautifully illustrated pages (themselves born of birch bark!) of 100 Trees.

[colwynn-design]