Monday, February 18, 2013

Nature Study Outing - Week 20



Catching up today with last week's nature study outing, as I have a question for nature-loving readers.  This time we spent a very warm and sunny morning at a county park about five miles outside of town.  As far as county parks go, this one was tiny--just four acres!  But besides having little rock coves and a creek to explore, it also provided a history lesson: we were able to see rock mortars and petroglyphs from the Ohlone Indians, dating back thousands of years.  Very neat.



And my question: in one area, the exposed tree roots had these strange spirals.  Are these just lovely carvings, or does this happen naturally?  And if so, from what?


3 comments:

  1. strange. i can't even venture a guess as i can't really see. it looks very interesting...

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  2. Hey C,

    My guess on the tree roots is that you are seeing a horizontal cross-section of the fibrous tissue in the tree roots. The curly-Q looking stuff I would bet is the xylem:

    http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/P/plant_stem.html

    Best guess. :)

    Jenni

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  3. Thanks for the tip, Jenni! Off to check Google Images for what you described... :)

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