Trees are part of our life. Do you ever really think of trees? You are probably under the impression that the only people who think of trees are tree smugglers and politicians. That may be true, but today we are going to give you some good reasons to think about trees. Trees are one of those things that although you probably don’t give them much thought about them, you can’t live without them. If it weren’t for trees and forests, our world would not be a natural habitable place to live in. They convert the carbon dioxide into oxygen so that our air remains breathable. The problems is that number of trees in many parts of the world have decreased drastically. It’s not all bad news though! Do you know that the United States of America actually has more trees today than it did in the past? It’s true.
Columbia University has developed a tree that is capable of 1,000 times more effective at absorbing CO2 than a regular tree.
California is home of the world’s oldest trees. Some of them are more than 5,000 years old.
The locations of some of the oldest trees in the world are kept secret to prevent people from damaging them.
Leonardo Da Vinci was the first person to note that all the branches of a tree put together would equal the thickness of the tree’s trunk. Modern science is trying to show why this is true.
During the 1930s, Nazis planted a tree shaped swastika .It was discovered in 1992 during an aerial survey. Residents then promptly cut down those trees .Swastikas are illegal in Germany.
About 99% of any given tree is actually dead. The living 1% of a tree consists of the leaves, the root tips, thin layer called the phloem is found under the bark and connects the two leaves of a tree with the roots by delivering nutrients.
Over a 1000 years ago, the islands of Venice were built on trees because the trees are submerged they do not rot. The fact is minerals in the water have been gradually calcifying them into stone.
Tana Toraja, an island in Indonesia have a different tradition. If a baby dies the villagers will cut a hole into a tree and lay the baby inside. They let the tree grow back around it.
Sandbox trees are covered with poisonous spikes and can shoot their fruits at over 250km.
During the late Devonian Period, as plants began to appear and trees started to increase. They suck all the CO2 out of the air. This phenomena ended up causing an ice age because the fungi that would decompose the trees and convert them into CO2 didn’t exist yet. Scientists have called this period as the Late Devonian Wood Crisis.
