Program ID: Innovation Anthology #45
Program Date: 07/03/2007
Program Category: Forests, Natural Sciences
Trees With Missing Rings
In school we’re taught you can tell the age of a tree by counting its rings. But that's not always the case.
Under stressful conditions, some trees like balsam fir don't bother making any rings at all So what looks like a small fifteen year old tree may actually be one that’s a hundred years old.
That’s the finding of Dr. Christian Messier and his colleagues at the University of Quebec.
DR. CHRISTIAN MESSIER: And what had happened is these small trees are very flimsy. So when the snow falls on them in the winter, they are pushed underground. And these trees have the ability to produce roots when they touch the ground. That's what we call adventurous roots. And so the stem, or the part that was above ground that was a stem becomes a root. So the tree maintains itself very small because it continually does that. It's pushed on the forest floor, it produces roots, then it gets rid of the old part of the root system underground and it stays small.
By counting root scars, Dr. Messier determined some trees actually spent forty years underground. It’s a strategy these trees evolved to survive under a dark canopy until a gap appears and they can prosper.
Thanks today to The Sustainable Forest Management Network.
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY, I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Images
Dr. Christian Messier and son
