Hello and a big autumnal welcome to you all. Following a few months of rethinking the bogs may I now welcome you to my new look Blog, which is also available in an audio format as before, if required.
What’s new I hear you ask, well I will be sharing a short blog each week and with a different aspect of nature each time. These blogs have been designed to support the work I do in Primary schools across Herefordshire and Gloucestershire helping inspire young people to connect with nature.
I am also looking to help adults outside of schools to connect to nature. By learning more about the world around us in the UK and the wider world it can help people begin to see how nature should be valued and cared for as they reach out and connect to nature.
So, without further ado let’s dive into the first episode for October…
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago,
the second-best time is now.
Yes, to start off my new look of Blogs, it had to be looking at trees. Not any one species, just trees in general. Why, because I am passionate about trees, woods are my favourite place to be. I use wood to help people feel better.
Now some of what I share with you may be stuff you already know in which case that is great, and I am just reminding you of it. Other points may be new to you, either way I hope I can encourage you to find out more and get outside and connect to some of the trees we will cover today. In the months to come I will be taking a closer look at some of our different species of trees that grow in the UK.
A tree is so much more than just a tree. A tree offers home, food, and safety to many species of wildlife. They help us be healthier, useful material to build with and made things from. Some even provide us with medicine, dies and inks.
So, let us start by saying not all trees are the same. There is a great deal of diversity in their sizes, shapes, growth habits, where they will grow, their impact on the world around them, what we have used them for and trees in the spiritual world.
I want to first explain that trees are like most species, they have two main purposes in life. First is to live as long as they can, and they do whatever they can to make that happen. The second is to ensure the survival of the species, which are the seeds they produce and then cast out into the woods around them to hopefully grow and become big one day.
One of the biggest draws on a tree is circulating the energy, nutrients and water that needs to circulate throughout it. Long ago when the world was young, some 500 million years ago, trees and plants chose to live a sedentary life. In other words, to grow, live and die in the same place. Therefore, they had to be able to extract all they needed from where they lived.
Whereas creatures, which including us humans chose a mobile life, this gives the advantage of being able to move to a new area when the present one is exhausted. Eventually humans chose to take a middle ground to settle in one place but with the option of moving if needed.
Like all living things trees are faced with challenges to their lives. The biggest challenge is created by the weather. In warm climates trees have evolved to be able to thrive all year round.
Whereas in climates like ours in the UK where it is warm in summer and cold in winter, they must deal with their biggest threat of not enough energy to keep them producing leaves.
The amount of sunlight is less and weaker in winter, cold winds and rain chill the trees, while strong winds threaten to bring them down as a canopy of leaves offers a lot of resistance. Therefore, trees must find a way to cope with this problem and they have found two ways to cope.
One large group of trees that had large flat leaves these are called broad-leaved trees. Every autumn as the hours of daylight begin to shorten and the weather gets colder they prepare for this by casting off all their leaves.
In suitable weather conditions they will give a wonderful show of colours, of green, yellow, orange, deep red and finally brown. Here you can see the leaves in autumn in their riot of colour. Also, a close up of one of the broad-leaved trees Oak.
The leaves of deciduous trees like oak, birch and beech will turn these wonderful colours because the sap that flows through the tree, rather like our blood flows around our body. They take their cue to prepare by the shortening hours of daylight and the colder temperatures that occur in autumn.
The tree draws its sap away from its extremities like the branches, back into its trunk, here it can be protected. As part of this process the tree absorbs nutrients in the leaf, and a scab is formed where the leaf joins the branch. This serves the connection and the leaves, the result of this is the chlorophyll in the leaf breaks down revealing the colours that are still there.
This picture shows the tree in winter, bare of its leaves, but if you look closely at their branches, you will see there are small buds there, which in spring when the weather warms and the daylight gets longer they will open up to be new leaves.
This picture shows the trees as they will be for the winter. I love this period for it gives us the opportunity to study the wonderful shape of the tree, its structure.
In the next picture we see how other trees chose to evolve in a way that meant they could cope with the cold and wetness of winter.
These are the evergreen trees and include trees like Yew, Holly and Scotts pine. They decided to have leaves that were like needles, very thin, as you can see in the picture. This meant less surface area to lose energy through, less wind resistance, so they could cope much better.
Whereas it appears that evergreens do not shed their leaves, however the trees do drop some of their leaves every year, but it is not like the deciduous ones where they shed them all in the autumn and new ones grow in spring. The evergreens have a gradual loss throughout the year, and new ones grown through as the old ones go. This gives the effect of not dropping their leaves.
Having now looked at how trees cope with the weather to ensure their survival. Their second aim is to continue the species, and this is done by producing seeds.
This is where I think nature becomes fascinating, the variety of ways these trees must ensure their species survives.
For a tree to reproduce young trees they must produce pollen which is then sent from the male flower parts called antlers to the female parts called stigma of another tree of the same species. The pollen is fertilized and becomes a seed.
For a tree to reproduce young trees they must produce pollen which is then sent from the male flower parts called antlers to the female parts called stigma of another tree of the same species. The pollen is fertilized and becomes a seed.
Some trees like willow, hazel oak and birch will rely on the wind to carry their seeds. Whereas Horse Chestnut and Sycamore use a combination of gravity and wind.
Other trees like Willow and Silver Birch rely on gravity, wind and water to carry their seeds. They need to be near a water coarse like a river or stream, then the seeds fall onto the water and if they are light or fluffy so they will float.
Some trees exploit the creatures that visit them to get their seeds spread about. Trees like Maple, Oak and Hazel all produce nuts which are taken by Jays and Squirrels like our native red and the more invasive grey. They take the nuts and hide them ready for winter. They will forget about some, and these are able to have a chance at growing.
Whereas trees like Yew, holly, hawthorn and Rowan have fleshy berries which birds, like thrushes, blackbirds and robins will eat. The undigested seed passes through their system and pass out in their droppings.
You think that is the end of the story but there is one last point to remember. Having created pollen, got it fertilised, transported into a form that could travel to a space where there is enough space to grow, it’s just a matter of time before there is a tree.
Unfortunately, it is not that simple. Let’s think about just one tree, an oak tree, in autumn lots of nut’s fall from the tree. Some will land on a stoney area and not grow. Some nuts will be eaten by animals like wild boar, squirrels or Jays.
There will be those that land on the soil and have the right conditions to sprout and grow into a tiny tree with two leaves. Only to be eaten by some deer or trampled on by people out walking.
However, one little nut will land in a hole in the ground, perhaps in a tangle of brambles. The conditions there, are good to grow and our sapling is protected from being eaten by the thorny brambles. Eventually it grows big enough to no longer be eaten by deer and in the years to come it gets bigger, and bigger.
Now it must wait for there an old tree to fall so it has a chance, if it can grow quick enough to achieve its amazing full self. Providing another tree falling doesn’t damage it, or no other trees fall or it’s too slow.
So, when next you take a moment to stand and study a tree, enjoy it connect with it, just think what it took for that tree to be there. Doesn’t it deserve us looking after it?
Until next time remember to
Tread Softly upon this Earth
Join next week for another look at nature.
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