trees
Was reading sfgate.com to look up info on my Raiders... and ran across this article:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/07/MNGQRL0TDV1.DTL
about the world's tallest trees being discovered (for now at least). I used to go by the redwood forests pretty frequently, so it was interesting to me, but it's really impossible to get pictures of redwoods that convey just how massive they are; they're generally in a group and all you can do is look upwards and wish you could see the tops. Well, I figured I might as well post pics of the world's largest tree, General Sherman (also a redwood) and a bristlecone pine. They won't let out which BCP is the oldest for fear of people damaging it; but I thought this particular one was cool. Methusaluh, the oldest, is around 4700 years old. Apparently a graduate student about 50 years ago wanted to determine the age of a tree and was allowed to cut it down; only to find it was within a century of 5000 years old; so they're not so keen on them being cut down anymore. General Sherman is some 30 feet diameter at it's base; meaning you could climb through the hole in it's base (see additional image). I remember going to a camp during middle school where we saw the petrified base of an ancient redwood. Surrounding it were the "saplings"; each about 10 feet in diameter themselves, with a crater outlining where the ancient had been, which had to have been about at least 60 feet wide at the bottom. Pity we don't have much in the way of trees in Arizona...
http://static.flickr.com/37/74646680_22f29377c8_b.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/98/General_Sherman_Tree%2C_Sequoia_National_Park.JPG
http://www.carto.net/neumann/travelling/usa_california_2003_08/02_yosemite_sequoia_np_2003_08_11_to_17/157_base_of_general_sherman_tree.jpg
http://www.flowersociety.org/images/Essences/Research/Redwood/redwood-trunk.jpg
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/07/MNGQRL0TDV1.DTL
about the world's tallest trees being discovered (for now at least). I used to go by the redwood forests pretty frequently, so it was interesting to me, but it's really impossible to get pictures of redwoods that convey just how massive they are; they're generally in a group and all you can do is look upwards and wish you could see the tops. Well, I figured I might as well post pics of the world's largest tree, General Sherman (also a redwood) and a bristlecone pine. They won't let out which BCP is the oldest for fear of people damaging it; but I thought this particular one was cool. Methusaluh, the oldest, is around 4700 years old. Apparently a graduate student about 50 years ago wanted to determine the age of a tree and was allowed to cut it down; only to find it was within a century of 5000 years old; so they're not so keen on them being cut down anymore. General Sherman is some 30 feet diameter at it's base; meaning you could climb through the hole in it's base (see additional image). I remember going to a camp during middle school where we saw the petrified base of an ancient redwood. Surrounding it were the "saplings"; each about 10 feet in diameter themselves, with a crater outlining where the ancient had been, which had to have been about at least 60 feet wide at the bottom. Pity we don't have much in the way of trees in Arizona...
http://static.flickr.com/37/74646680_22f29377c8_b.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/98/General_Sherman_Tree%2C_Sequoia_National_Park.JPG
http://www.carto.net/neumann/travelling/usa_california_2003_08/02_yosemite_sequoia_np_2003_08_11_to_17/157_base_of_general_sherman_tree.jpg
http://www.flowersociety.org/images/Essences/Research/Redwood/redwood-trunk.jpg
