Cloned Males Declining “Untidy” Females & More Tree Facts of Life
Tree sap, xylem sap, phloem sap, pitch, gum, milk, juice, glue, latex, amber, rosin, resin, etc., are some of the many words used to describe the properties resulting from the process of resin exudation.
First, in understanding the normal, let’s take a quick look at sap.
When a tree is marred or injured it oozes resin.
The resin is filled with antibacterial properties, anti-inflammatories and a stickiness that helps to close the cut and prevent a tree from becoming infected. Resins are healing for people as well and have been used throughout history to heal cuts, skin abrasions and bruises. You can also create curative forest balsams, tinctures, oils, and aromatic incense and perfumes from resins.
In Awe of Mother Nature
Timber is enduring and long lasting and so friendly to the earth. Nature shows us the wisdom in the use of real wood as one of her most steadfast, reliable materials when we observe the marvelous wonder of why trees live as long as they do.
In the Sequoia National Park in Sierra Nevada there is an ancient tree, so large that as you look up at this towering monarch of majesty of more than fifty four thousand cubic feet of awe inspiring wood. The total sum of this king of trees can not be seen in its entirety without lifting the eyes up, up, up in a sweeping panoramic view. The tree is fondly called The President. The Society Grant concluded that there is no tree that has more wood in volume than The President. It’s wood and trunk is increasing with age, growing wider as it thickens producing more wood in a year than a healthy, strong young tree. The President is said to be over 3200 years old with almost two billion leaves and still growing larger and increasing in wood and still breathing in carbon dioxide and releasing its life giving properties of pure oxygen back into our atmosphere.
Once a tree has grown, outlasting anything that could have taken it when it was young it becomes so strong it can not be knocked over by fierce winds and it appears to be indestructible. It’s bark is so thick it is resistant to fire and the giant sequoia is protected from fires caused from lightning. The lightning can harm the adult tree but it seldom kills them. Ground fires enhances and helps the sequoias by opening up the sequoia cones for the seeds to sprout in the nourishing ashes and sunshine. It opens up cones and lets saplings have light and flourish. The bark and center wood are impregnated and ingrained with natural chemical fungicides that preserve it against fungal canker and decay. Termites, wood ants and wood-boring beetles do not faze or effect them.
Timber Is The Archetype Of Immortality.Submerged or dry, timber can last indefinitely. Pure wood itself is not easy to destroy by the ordinary or typical operations of nature. It takes several atmospheric conditions working with each other to bring about decay. The greatest possibility of harm to trees is not moisture in and of itself. Trees flooded and submerged underwater for well over one hundred years ago have been raised from underwater as good as new. The water in lakes and rivers are in most cases too cold with insufficient oxygen to cause it to degrade. The logs retrieved from lakes are processed through conventional mills and are air or kiln dried. Although the drowned logs have faded in some cases testing shows they contain the virtual properties and quality of the best certified modern timber.
Timber Is The Archetype Of Immortality.
The water in lakes and rivers are in most cases too cold with insufficient oxygen to cause it to degrade. The logs retrieved from lakes are processed through conventional mills and are air or kiln-dried. Although the drowned logs have faded in some cases testing shows they
contain the virtual properties and quality of the best certified modern timber.
Dry Rot, Wet Rot, And Wood Destroying Organisms
Submerged or dry, timber can last indefinitely. Pure wood itself is not easy to destroy by the ordinary or typical operations of nature. It takes several atmospheric conditions working with each other to bring about decay.
The greatest possibility of harm to trees is not moisture in and of itself. Trees flooded and submerged underwater for well over one hundred years ago have been raised from underwater as good as new.
Tree Of 40 Fruits
Sam Van Aken grew up on a farm and later became an art professor at the University of Syracuse in New York. When Van Aken learned that an heirloom orchard station was closing for a lack of funding, he bought the orchard to prevent over 250 varieties of trees from going extinct.
Combining his artistic talent and agriculture knowledge he grafted 40 varieties of trees into one root structure. In the spring, the tree is a gorgeous array of pinks, red, purple and white blossoms. In the summer, it produces rare varieties of almonds, apricots, cherries, nectarines, peaches, and plums.
Incredulously, trees do not stop giving us life after they have been harvested.
Unlike concrete or steel; which only emits the carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, mass timber continues to absorb and store carbon dioxide.
Photographing The President
The President tree is so large it cannot be viewed all at once. Photographers for the
National Geographic used pulleys and levers, hoisting a camera into the air and snapped
126 photographs. In the December 2012 issue, they published one breathtaking composite,
capturing this majestic monolith, in its full glory.
The Society Grant concluded that there is no tree with more wood in volume than The
President. Its’ trunk is increasing with age, growing wider as it thickens producing more
wood in a year than a healthy, strong young tree. The President is considered to be one of
the oldest sequoia trees in the world – over 3200 years old – with almost two billion leaves
and still growing larger and increasing in wood and still breathing in carbon dioxide and
releasing its life-giving properties of pure oxygen back into our atmosphere.
- Once a tree has grown, outlasting anything that could have taken it when it was young it
becomes so strong it can not be knocked over by fierce winds and it appears to be
indestructible. - Its’ bark is so thick it is resistant to fire and the giant sequoia is protected from fires caused
by lightning. The lightning can harm the adult tree but it seldom kills them. - Ground fires enhance and help the sequoias by opening up the sequoia cones for the
seeds to sprout in the nourishing ashes and sunshine. It opens up cones and lets saplings
have light and flourish. - The bark and center wood are impregnated and ingrained with natural chemical
fungicides that preserve it against fungal canker and decay. Termites, wood ants, and wood-
boring beetles do not faze or effect them.
In Awe Of Mother Nature
Mass timber is gathering a great deal of attention in the art, work, and business of fabricating and assembling materials into architectural edifices. Although it is recognized as an ancient building material, timber offers unique advantages and exciting new opportunities in modern architectonic applications. Advocates for timber believe it can revolutionize the building industry, and play a supporting role in the solution to climate change.
Timber from the Old English initially meant “house” or “building material” and was large, squared cuts from trees. Trees have been used as a building material for all of human history and are one of our greatest natural resources. Nature shows us the wisdom in the use of real wood as one of her most steadfast, reliable materials when we observe the marvelous wonder of trees.
Trees supply us with oxygen, give us shade, windbreaks, and are a resource of food and medicine, to name a few of its essential benefits. Without trees, life on earth would not be possible. But there are myths and misconceptions surrounding trees and building with
Unlike concrete or steel; which only emits the carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, mass timber continues to absorb and store carbon dioxide.
A ten-story wood building at 2590 square feet per story stores 1570 tons of carbon dioxide whereas a comparable concrete building will emit 2175 tons of carbons.
Timber regulates itself for more even temperatures but it also has another remarkable characteristic, bacteria will not reproduce itself on wood.
Timber is amazing when you consider buildings that are centuries old are still strengthening us, giving us a healthier, safer, cleaner and more comfortable surroundings. An enclosed room made from timber not only makes us a healthier but regenerates us by stimulating our senses with is warmth, smell, texture, and variations of colors.
On this wonderful earth, genuine wood products are still of the finest, most dependable materials known to man with its long-lasting benefits and positive influences upon our environment over man-made synthetic alternatives.
Nothing is wasted in the industry of timber products even the residue of sawdust and bark are made into mulch to replenish and given back to the earth. Trees are a wonderful part of our civilization.
Timber, like steel, can carry a great amount of concentrated weight load. The Radiata pine native to California is one extreme example of the strength of wood. Its ratio weight strength is 20% higher than steel and 5 times stronger than non reinforced concrete under compression.
Wood is anisotropic, i.e. possessing different strengths in different directions. There are several species of woods possessing immense load strengths but one of the very best is the Douglass Fir.
The Douglass Fir has an even higher strength ratio than the Radiata pine and is considered to be the most perduring for timber support beams.
Wood costs less and expends less energy to manufacture from raw material than alternative building materials. Unlike mining for ore, trees are harvested crops and are not depleted.
Only a small fraction of the forests are utilized and when managed properly they are an inexhaustible and an abundant sustainable resource. Wood is also durable and ecologically sound being 100% biodegradable with renewable energy and is reusable as well.
Testing Timber With Explosives!
There are many advantages of building with timber. Wood invokes warm feelings and is a beautiful, renewable, sustainable construction material. It also reduces the carbon footprint of buildings.
The use of wood technology is almost endless, with new applications being invented and assessed as in this explosion test of three cross-laminated timber structures by Woodworks.
Woodworks worked with the United States Forest Service at Tyndall Air Force Base predicting acceptable levels of damage under large-scale explosive loads. Their prognosis matched their model builds and all the structures remained in tact after significant explosions. That’s impressive! You can watch their video footage here.
Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and Incense Cedar (Calocedrus decurrens) are both resinous gymnosperms — cone-bearing softwoods. Douglas fir is among the most resin-rich structural timbers available, and Incense Cedar also carries moderate resin content. This is not a flaw. It is part of why they are prized. The extractives in Douglas fir resin carry remarkable properties: researchers have identified terpene compounds with antibacterial activity, anti-inflammatory characteristics, and structural analogues to the same aromatic compounds found in frankincense and myrrh. For centuries, Pacific Northwest indigenous peoples used Douglas fir medicinally. The sap weeping down your post is, in a real sense, the wood’s immune system saying hello.
An all-wooden aircraft of World War II, called the DH.98 Mosquito dubbed the “Wooden Wonder” flew at super high speeds for a twin-engine bomber. It flew carrying remarkably heavy loads over great distances. Initially, it was rejected by the British Air Ministry but after extensive and impressive flight trials it outperformed even the manufacturers’ expectations. Enjoy some cool, curious, and sometimes crazy tree facts. #DIYPavilionKit #WoodShadeShelter #TimberTrivia
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Boswellia sacra is a bizarre evergreen tree that grows in the most unforgiving of terrains, It is so tenacious it has at times been known to sprout and grow out of a boulder or solid rock. #FrankincenseOil #TreeTrivia #OutdoorLiving #Shade
Cool, Crazy, and Curious Tree Trivia
Artist Giuliano Mauri is building a living “Tree Cathedral” in Bergamo, Italy from beech trees. It is still being built, growing up towards heaven, the trees will eventually form walls and a vaulted ceiling. Enjoy some cool, curious, and sometimes crazy tree facts. #GrowingCathedral #WoodShadeShelter #TimberTrivia https://www.westerntimberframe.com/wooden-timber-pergolas/wooden-pergola-kits/cool-crazy-and-curious-tree-trivia/
The oldest living tree in France is a CHURCH. Located in Allouville-Bellefosse an oak tree was constructed into two small chapels still used for worship today. It is charming and looks like a child’s fairy tale with a wooden staircase surrounding the outside of the trunk.
The Boabab trees are used for art, food, medicine, and shelter. The aboriginals call this bizarre-looking tree, “The Tree of Life,” and rightly so, as it is a godsend to the poor. The seedling baobab roots are eaten like carrots. The leaves and flowers make a nutritious salad. The Boabab is also called “The Miracle Tree” because its trunk and branches can store more than 30,000 gallons of supply of drinking water to thirsty people and animals.
Living bridges formed from the roots of a tree.Since the beginning of time, people have been manipulating the trees to create art or as pictures above, aeroponically grow and shape the roots of a tree to grow bridges. This is done without the aid of a scaffolding or any other materials made by man. #LivingBridge #TreeTrivia #WoodWise #NaturalShade
An all-wooden aircraft of World War II, called the DH.98 Mosquito dubbed the “Wooden Wonder.” It flew at super high speeds for a twin-engine bomber carrying remarkably heavy loads over great distances. Initially, it was rejected by the British Air Ministry but after extensive and impressive flight trials it outperformed even the manufacturers’ expectations. Enjoy some cool, curious, and sometimes crazy tree facts. #DIYPavilionKit #WoodShadeShelter #TimberTrivia
The Decatur County Courthouse in Greensburg, Indiana, has a tree growing through the roof tower. People first noticed a tree in 1870, growing through the roof of the Courthouse. It became a novelty in the town. When the tree died it was removed. Years later, another tree sprouted out. No one knows how the trees seeded in the tower. There have been over 16 trees grow in the tower and not of the same species. The current tree is a Mulberry tree. #TreeTrivia
Cool, Crazy, and Curious Tree Trivia
