The Truth About Trees

[brilliantbotany]

This is the Founder’s Tree, the crown jewel of the Founder’s Trail at Humboldt Redwoods State Park. The tree measures 346.1ft in height, 12.7ft in diameter, its circumference and its lowest branch is 190.4ft off of the ground. It is a true redwood giant.

Check out my video about my trip to the park here.

More information about the Founder’s Grove: http://www.redwoodhikes.com/Humboldt/Founders.html

Photo by Brilliant Botany.

[scientificphilosopher]

Woodpeckers are Hardcore

To prevent damage to the brain caused by the rapid and repeated impacts, woodpeckers have evolved several adaptations to protect the brain: it is small sized, orientations within the skull are such in order to maximize the area of contact with the skull and the brevity of contact. In the millisecond before each impact, a membrane covers the eye, protecting against shrapnel. The nostrils are small gaps and have special feathers to cap them. Thus, the woodpecker are capable of repeatedly pecking the wood of a tree, suffering deceleration in the order of 10,000 m/s. 

[source]

[coolthingoftheday]

Bonsai apple tree growing a full-sized apple.

[kingfucko]

it must have worked so hard!

[immaterialmurdoc]

@crush-the-matriarchy

[crush-the-matriarchy-deactivate]

I’m so proud of this little tree

[ianbrooks]

Dancing Dead Leaves by Yunfan Tan

Have you ever danced with the devil by the pale moonlight? Batman has, but surely the fallen leaves that have given their lives annually for a few thousand millennia know that feel as well, though Yunfan believes that need not be a saddening sacrifice: looping the withering process and turning it into an endless dance, the leaves’ way of saying this isn’t goodbye… just we’ll do this again next year.

Artist: Behance / Tumblr / Linkedin

[nybg]

To the pessimist the leaves are dying, but to the optimist they are coming back to life. Personally, they remind me that we still have spring to look forward to. ~LM

[truthabouttrees]

When Kemba Shakur moved to Oakland, there were no trees on her block. She started planting, then went on to found Urban Releaf. The group fights poverty and high unemployment by engaging young people in urban forestry. Her street is shaded now, and she's pushing to raise the city's tree canopy to 40%.

[traceloops]

the leaves are starting to change color

[nybg]

Our Fall Foliage Tracker is at 45%! ~LM

[forestzin]

By golden-autumn http://golden-autumn.tumblr.com/post/97463408325

[forestzin]

[truthabouttrees]

Autumn color brightens rainfall. Beautiful.

By elvenrealm http://elvenrealm.tumblr.com/post/96891692765/swansong-willows-pinned-via-pinterest

via forestzin

[smithsonianlibrariesarchives]

Much has been written upon the effects of Coffee on the constitution, which by some are considered as highly salutary, and by others as very injurious. There is no possibility of reconciling accounts to contrary; but doubtless the effects are various upon different persons.

Curtis’ botanical magazine. v. 31-32 (1810)

[truthabouttrees]

International Coffee Day, time to appreciate the coffee tree.

[nprontheroad]

"No bruises!" This crew of six Jamaican workers will carefully pick 20,000 bushels from 6,000 trees over the course of apple season at Scott Farm in Dummerston, Vermont. Fredson Brissett is about to unload his 40-pound basket of Hubbardston Nonesuch. They balance on beautiful century-old ladders to pick from the treetops. "The six of us are like brothers," they tell me. "Like a relay team."

[tree-campus-usa]

Throwback Thursday

circa 1938.

[treesonstreets]

Street trees aren’t always silly. Here we have something like a closed canopy on a street in Boerum Hill in Brooklyn.

[truthabouttrees]

Kevin Jefferson: "The love is going to keep me going" from Truth About Trees on Vimeo.

For the young people of Oakland, California, a February 2014 tree planting near the Fruitvale BART station was a healing event. As board member and program manager for Urban Releaf, Kevin Jefferson plays a central role in every aspect of the work. "The love," he says, "is going to keep me going with this, probably forever." We're grateful to Kevin and to everyone at Urban Releaf for sharing their stories and keeping the work going.

[nybg]

Sometimes I look at the decades-old trees in the Garden and wonder what stories they would tell if they could. Mei Linn Chan takes this sort of sentiment literally with her gorgeous Leaf Type. With leaves like this, branches would become words and sentences and would give voice to the trees. I love how she highlights the symmetry and asymmetry of her diverse choice of leaves by keeping only their veins to support her letters and numbers. And there are so many different shades of green! —HG

[fieldmuseumphotoarchives]

This Giant Redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum ) was collected for the Field Museum’s collection in 1911. It was 22 ft in diameter. Record trees have been measured to be 311 ft (94.8 m) in height and over 56 ft (17 m)  in diameter.

© The Field Museum, CSB34454, Photographer Huron H. Smith.

8 men standing inside Giant Redwood tree trunk. Men in undercut of 22 foot diameter trees, Camp 20, Barnwood Lumber Company.

California Redwood Forest Expedition.

5x7 glass negative

1911

[nybg]

You’re right, that’s just a rendering up there. But the designer of this tree, artist Sam Van Aken, is hoping to see the real things produce a similar sherbet rainbow when his “Trees of 40 Fruit” mature. Consider this the Frankenstein (or Mr. Stitch, if you saw that one) of grafting experiments.

Not a genetic experiment so much as a patient grafting of 40 different stone fruit branches onto a single trunk, this tree is designed to not only produce fruits of all sorts throughout the year, but create a stunning palette in the process. And according to Van Aken, it’s also about preserving uncommon local stone fruit varieties, some of which he stuffs into each tree he creates.

So far there are 16 young trees planted around the country. We’ll see what comes of them. Head through for the full story. —MN

(Photo credit: The Verge, Tree of 40 Fruit)

[truthabouttrees]

Red mulberry (Morus rubra) Histoire des arbres forestiers de l'Amérique septentrionale,1812-13. Biodiversity Heritage Library.