milehigh_7
Mister 500,000
Now that's cool!
Random tree trivia...
- Thread starter Bonsai Nut
- Start date
hemmy
Omono
The Osage Orange tree, Maclura pomifera, has a modern native range that was confined to the Red River area of OK, TX, AR, and LA prior to its being naturalized for planting as living fences and wind breaks. Its original range is attributed to its poor seed dispersal. The large fruit can float, but no native mammal eats the fruit (although some squirrels tear the fruit apart for the seeds). Researchers theorize that the now extinct megafauna (e.g., giant ground sloths, mammoths, etc.) were responsible for eating the fruit and spreading the seeds across a much larger range. Several other North American trees and plants appear to have features best explained by their evolution with these now extinct megafauna. Another such tree is the honeylocust with its giant menacing thorns possibly to prevent the overgrazing by mammoths and ground sloths.
http://www.americanforests.org/magazine/article/trees-that-miss-the-mammoths/
http://www.americanforests.org/magazine/article/trees-that-miss-the-mammoths/
Rambles
Mame
I love monkey puzzle trees, but had puzzled on the name.
A favorite fact (here via wikipedia)
"The origin of the popular English language name "monkey puzzle" derives from its early cultivation in Britain in about 1850, when the species was still very rare in gardens and not widely known. Sir William Molesworth, the proud owner of a young specimen at Pencarrow garden near Bodmin in Cornwall, was showing it to a group of friends, one of them – the noted barrister and Benthamist Charles Austin – remarked, "It would puzzle a monkey to climb that".As the species had no existing popular name, first "monkey puzzler", then "monkey puzzle" stuck."
A favorite fact (here via wikipedia)
"The origin of the popular English language name "monkey puzzle" derives from its early cultivation in Britain in about 1850, when the species was still very rare in gardens and not widely known. Sir William Molesworth, the proud owner of a young specimen at Pencarrow garden near Bodmin in Cornwall, was showing it to a group of friends, one of them – the noted barrister and Benthamist Charles Austin – remarked, "It would puzzle a monkey to climb that".As the species had no existing popular name, first "monkey puzzler", then "monkey puzzle" stuck."
Quince
Mame
According to our current understanding of plant evolution:
Maples are closer to poison ivy than they are to Oaks
Oaks are closer to cannabis than they are to Lindens
Lindens are closer to coton than they are to Elms
Elms are closer to wheat than they are to Ginkgos
Ginkgos of course, stand alone
Maples are closer to poison ivy than they are to Oaks
Oaks are closer to cannabis than they are to Lindens
Lindens are closer to coton than they are to Elms
Elms are closer to wheat than they are to Ginkgos
Ginkgos of course, stand alone
Velodog2
Chumono
Is that implying woody trees evolved separately many times from many plant lineages?
Was imagining what a tree’s family tree would look like and hurt myself a little.
Was imagining what a tree’s family tree would look like and hurt myself a little.
Quince
Mame
Yes!
Many families include herbaceous, vining and woody growth forms. Reproductive structures are much more consistent within groups. As far as I can tell genetic studies have somewhat humbled the field. Some older parts of the tree that were once taught as fact are now conceded as unknown. However we can still paint in broad strokes.
Velodog2
Chumono
I’ve spent the last hour wading through the Wikipedia entry on plant evolution and better realize the simplistic foolishness of my previous comment, as flippant as it was. Gracious.
I did see hints of the further implications of what you say however. There are significant differences in how various woody plant lineages function and how they handle such problems as air embolisms, which can be related to freeze/thaw cycles, that can destroy the ability of vascular tissue to transport water. It may actually be surprising that we can treat our plants as similarly as we do, or conversely no wonder we have to treat them all so differently.
I did see hints of the further implications of what you say however. There are significant differences in how various woody plant lineages function and how they handle such problems as air embolisms, which can be related to freeze/thaw cycles, that can destroy the ability of vascular tissue to transport water. It may actually be surprising that we can treat our plants as similarly as we do, or conversely no wonder we have to treat them all so differently.
milehigh_7
Mister 500,000
Speaking of cannabis, hackberrys were removed from Family: Ulmaceae and are now relaxing in Family: Cannabaceae
AlainK
Imperial Masterpiece
This reminds me of what I saw in a famous cave in France, Pech Merle: in one of the rooms there's a big root coming from the ceiling and getting into the soil again. The root is over 5 metres tall and the base of the tree outside is 15 metres higher above the ceiling (50 feet).
The locals couldn't tell which tree it was, but in 1976 there was a severe drought in Europe, and they noticed that one tree, three trunks from the same base was the only one whose leaves hadn't turned brown, so they suppose that's the one.
https://krapooarboricole.wordpress....les-causse-de-cabrerets-grotte-de-pech-merle/
I don't know which species of oak it is, but that's the region where oaks are planted with mycorrhizae that will give black truffles (the current price of truffles is between 600 and 900 € - $700/ $1000 , depending of the quality)
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AlainK
Imperial Masterpiece
In French "désespoir des singes", "monkeys' dispair", for the same reason...
M. Frary
Bonsai Godzilla
I got a ton of elm leaves!
Break out the bong!
