[extropy-chat] RE: Please tell us a tree story Spike (long, not particularly extropian)

[spike]

> bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of spike
...
> 
> Yes I shall see something more wonderous than a tree: two
> trees that have fallen in opposite directions... spike

Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote:

> Before the students entered the classroom, the teacher turned the plate
> around...

kevinfreels wrote:
> Maybe they fell at different times from different storms?

BillK wrote:
> Most likely solution, after the first fall had weakened the roots of 
> the second tree.

OK cool, you are thinking.

While hiking at Mount Rainier last week in the old growth
forests, I made a number of observations about trees.  In
an old growth forest in the US northwest, the trees in the
biggie range (two to four meter diameter) grow at a typical
spacing of 10 to 15 meters.  The distribution is not random,
which should come as no surprise, because trees compete
for resources.  They distribute themselves more evenly
than random.

I did see something puzzling however.  There are a
number of big trees that are so close they touch.  There 
are more trees that touch at their bases than
there are trees that are 3 meters apart.

I saw two trees that had fallen in opposite directions.
This was not so remarkable, for one might imagine a whirlwind
or tornado which has winds in opposite directions 
simultaneously.  I noted that the two trees, if mentally set
upright, would actually intersect.  The roots on the up
side were bent and gnarly (dude), perhaps from competing
with the other tree.

You may already know of the materials property of wood:
it is highly anisotropic.  This is a fancy engineering
way of saying its strength is highly dependent on load
and direction.  Snap a toothpick, cut it with a scissor,
crush it lengthwise, easy, easy, easy, since wood is a
low strength material in compression, shear and bending
load.  

But now try to pull that toothpick apart lengthwise.  It
will give you a new respect for the tensile strength of
wood, and a new respect for the carbon-carbon bond.

Back to trees: If you have strong roots on three sides
and bent gnarly roots on one side, the most likely direction
of fall is gnarly roots up, since the strong roots are
unlikely to fail in tension.  But they might fail in
bending.

In an old growth forest, old dead trees fall and become
nurse logs: other trees germinate on the log itself, then
devour the nutrients in the nurse log.  If you have an 
old growth forest nearby, do look for nurse logs.  

I noticed that the newly germinated trees were more likely
to sprout not on the top of the fallen log, but on the
sides, where the cylindrical surface was about 45 degrees
from horizontal.  Perhaps the rough bark surface could
trap more water for a longer time there than on the top
of the log?  If you find a nurse log, see if you find
that there are two rows of newly germinated trees, along
either side of the nurse log.

Perhaps this would explain why there are so many touching
pairs of trees: they both started about the same time on
either side of the same nurse log, so neither had a big
advantage over the other.  They grew up together as twins.

Now imagine branches growing out of the trunk toward the
twin tree.  The two steadily push on each other as the
branches grow.  In every case where I saw twin trees
touching at their bases, they grew apart to form an
enormous V.  So they were leaning in just the wrong
way, depending on their weak gnarly roots on the side
that needed the enormous strength of wood in tension.

The last bit of the puzzle was provided by twin trees
whose roots had been force mostly above ground on the other-
tree side, each wrapping around its twin in a root-amentary
embrace ({8^D).  One could easily imagine that the 
underground roots were interlaced, as one would interlace 
one's fingers to crack one's knuckles.

With that mental picture one need not call for a
whirlwind, but rather the ordinary storm gust strong 
enough to push over one of the twins, whose roots would 
then lever the other out of the ground in the opposite
direction.  Problem solved!

As I walked among these stately patriarchs, I marveled
at the changes they have seen in their centuries.  Filled 
with awe and wonder was I at their steadfast perseverance
across the generations of us temporary primates.  My mind
boggled as I struggled to comprehend just how much they
would be worth if cut up into something useful.

Kidding, bygones, I have made arrangements to go to 
Montana (on a motorcycle of course) to go look at old
growth forest.  Trees are cool.

spike