"Friendships
One day I stumbled across a patch of strange looking mossy stones in a preserve of old beech trees. Casting my mind back, I realized I had passed by them many times before without paying them any heed. But that day, I stopped and bent down to take a good look. The stones were an unusual shape: they were gently curved with hollowed out areas. Carefully, I lifted the moss on one of the stones. What I found underneath was tree bark. So these were not stones, after all, but old wood. I was surprised by how hard the "stone" was, because it usually takes only a few years for the beechwood lying on damp ground to decompose. But what surprised me most was that I couldn't lift the wood. It was obviously attached to the ground in some way.
I took out my pocketknife and carefully scraped away some of the bark until I got down to a greenish layer. Green? This color is found only in chlorophyll, which makes new leaves green; reserves of chlorophyll are also stored in the trunks of living trees. This could mean only one thing: this piece of wood was alive!
I suddenly noticed that the remaining "stones" formed a distinct pattern: they were arranged in a circle with a diameter of about 5 feet. What I had stumbled upon were the gnarled remains of an enormous ancient tree stump. All that was left were the vestiges of the outermost edge. The interior had completely rotted into humus long ago--a clear indication that the tree must have been felled at least four or five hundred years earlier. But how could the remains have clung on to life for so long? It was clear that something must have been going on. This stump was getting assistance from neighboring trees that were helping keep it alive.
If you look at roadside embankments, you might be able to see how trees connect with each other through their root systems. On these slopes rain often washes away the soil, leaving the underground networks exposed. Scientist in the Harz mountains of Germany have discovered that this really is a case of interdependence, and most individual trees of the same species growing in the same stand are connected to each other through their root systems. It appears that exchanging nutrients and helping neighbors in times of need is the rule, and this leads to the conclusion that forests are superorganisms with interconnections much like ant colonies."
Below is a picture of one of the Ghost Apples that formed in West Michigan during the Ice Storm in early Feb.
7 comments:
The Ghost Apple is wild.
The beach roots are way interesting too.
The link connect to Ghost Apples isn't working and I don't know how to fix it.
Here is the long version: https://www.foxnews.com/science/ghost-apples-appear-at-michigan-orchard-following-icy-weather
When the same sort of frosting/icing happens to grapes, they make ice wine from it. The freezing temps nseparate the sugars and water in the fruit allowing more concentrated sugar going into fermentation.
I mentioned apple jack in an earlier thread. That name comes from “jacking” the alcohol content of fermented apple juice by freezing: water freezes out as pure ice leaving the “mother liquor” enriched in alcohol after filtration. It’s an alternative to distillation. The lower temps preserve some of the more delicate fruit notes.
I had read about the ice raisin wine, but ghost apples are new to me. I really am curious about how the apple mush escapes while leaving a perfect glass-like shell. Fascinating stuff.
As for root rings, in the redwood forests one sometimes encounters a circle of young trees - and by young I mean 100 years old or so, in a nice 25 or 30 foot circle. They are sprouting off the roots of an ancient tree of enormous size and I think redwoods are one of the few conifers known to send up shoots from old roots.
And roots are tough - I have been trying to burn out the remains of a hollow silver maple tree in my back yard and even after years of repeated fires they are still there, still so tough that they resist ax and mattock work, and who knows, they might just have to stay there until nature does the job.
Rattle big black bones in the danger zone
There's a rumblin' groan down below
There's a big dark town, it's a place I've found
There's a world going on underground
They're alive, they're awake
While the rest of the world is asleep
Below the mine shaft roads, it will all unfold
There's a world going on underground
All the roots hang down, swing from town to town
They are marching around down under your boots
All the trucks unload beyond the gopher holes
There's a world going on underground
T Waits
Great comment/post, Dad Bones!
Thanks cl. And MamaM for an interesting post. Most of us probably don't talk or think too much about the half of the tree that lives underground.
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