5 ms·
I recently visited the national history museum and finally got a sense of the _weirdness_ of prehistoric trees. No bark, a green trunk (utilizing photosynthesis
by dclowd9901 1y ago
I recently visited the national history museum and finally got a sense of the _weirdness_ of prehistoric trees. No bark, a green trunk (utilizing photosynthesis), tall like a palm tree. I'd love to see something like that now.
- kzrdude 1y agoWell, bamboo comes to mind as a really weird tree. It's not a tree, but it's the size of one..
- climb_stealth 1y agoThat sounds awesome! The oddest trees I have come across had big thorns like roses all over the trunk. Kind of hard to see because the trunk is so big, but you'd very quickly notice leaning against it. That was in a botanical garden in Australia. No idea what they were or how common they are. Blew my mind.
- galangalalgol 1y agoCeiba speciosa maybe? That is a weird tree for sure. I grew up where there were wild thorny honeylocust trees. The trunks are spotted with dense clusters of branching thorns, some of which are 8" long and stiff enough to puncture tractor tires. To paraphrase family guy, nature is scary.
- dotancohen 1y agoYeah, we've got these in Beersheba (south of Israel). The only tree my ten year old won't climb. They've also got really interesting cotton-like fruits, though I'm not brave enough to taste them.
- dylan604 1y agoSounds like the nightmare tree I had to deal with as well. I never did find out what it was. Does the honeylocust produce a bunch of red berries? My dad used to get mad at me as a teen when I’d be lazy and not pick up the fallen limbs from this tree and puncture the tractor tires. It was to the sole reason I became very proficient at using the tire repair kit.
- Rendello 1y agoThe oddest tree I know of is poplar, which is incredibly common around here and is basically considered junk wood. Turns out, those individual, fast-growing trees are in fact stems of a large underground root system. One of these trees has 47,000 stems: > Most agree [...] that Pando encompasses 42.89 hectares (106 acres), weighs an estimated 6,000 metric tons (6,600 short tons) or 13.2 million pounds, and features an estimated 47,000 stems, which die individually and are replaced by genetically identical stems that are sent up from the tree's vast root system, a process known as "suckering". The root system is estimated to be several thousand years old, with habitat modeling suggesting a maximum age of 14,000 years and 16,000 years by the latest (2024) estimate.[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pando_(tree) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pando_(tree)
- jpfdez 1y agoPoplars have underground roots, but they are not "underground root stems" per se. Their main stem is the trunk we see growing above ground.
- Rendello 1y agoI'm mostly using the terminology from the Pando article. The article quotes a "Mitton and Grant" as writing: > quaking aspen regularly reproduces via a process called suckering. An individual stem can send out lateral roots that, under the right conditions, send up other erect stems; from all above-ground appearances the new stems look just like individual trees. The process is repeated until a whole stand, of what appear to be individual trees, forms. This collection of multiple stems, called ramets, all form one, single, genetic individual, usually termed a clone.
- Ifkaluva 1y agoPoplar is considered junk wood? This is news to me. I’ve seen plenty of poplar furniture.
- throwup238 1y agoIt’s too soft to be of much use except the odd piece of furniture (for which it is pretty terrible because it dents too easily). As a woodworker finishing it also sucks because the fibers tear too easily. Its grain pattern looks bland at best, it ages poorly, and its color is too inconsistent from tree to tree. That said, it’s one of the most stable woods so it doesn’t warp much which is why it’s a popular base material for plywood and it’s easy on cutting tools. I usually only use it for the interior parts of drawers.
- DHRicoF 1y agoI don't know if you are talking about Drunken tree (palo borracho in spanish) but once playing soccer in a field with some of them I ended with around 15 funny parallels cuts. Good old times.
- williamdclt 1y ago> visited the national history museum what nation?
- dclowd9901 1y agoSorry, I was referring to the Smithsonian National History Museum
- pif 1y ago> prehistoric trees I suppose you are actually talking of a time preceding prehistory by a fair lot!
- dylan604 1y agoHow can something precede history. Isn’t that just older history?
- kergonath 1y agoConventionally, History starts with written records. Everything that came before is prehistoric. It’s useful as a concept when discussion groups of humans in the last 10-odd millennia, but not really for things that are a couple of millions years old.
- pif 1y ago> Everything that came before is prehistoric. Hi, Wikipedia doesn't agree with you: > Prehistory [...] is the period of _human_ history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins c. 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. Emphasis mine on "human". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistory
- kergonath 1y agoYes, you are right. I was thinking in the context of human populations. And then there is the question of what is human and what is not, and the limit between archaeology and paleontology when considering homininae.
- marcellus23 1y agowhich museum? Do you mean the Natural History Museum in New York?
- dclowd9901 1y agoThe Smithsonian in DC
- ceejayoz 1y agoClosest you can come today is probably a tree fern. I've got a Dicksonia antarctica in my living room under grow lights. It's a neat plant.
- dclowd9901 1y agoThose look a lot like the ones I saw in the museum. Very cool plant!
- kjkjadksj 1y agoCycads are pretty old
- dpc050505 1y agoPot plants have no bark and a green trunk and can reach heights of like 12 ft.