10 Important Facts About Trees You Never Knew
There are more than a few things about trees you probably never knew! Check out our favourite amazing facts about one of nature’s greatest gifts.
AMAZING TREE FACTS
1. The earth may be a staggering 4.5 billion years old – but even early forms of plants (such as mosses and lichens) only sprang up as recently as 470 million years ago. Larger plants followed about 420 million years ago, but it took tens of millions more years for trees taller than 3 feet high to evolve.
2. California holds the record for the oldest living trees. Some of the state’s bristlecone pines and giant sequoias are 4,000-5,000 years old. Methuselah, an estimated 4,852-year-old ancient Bristlecone Pine, is one of the oldest living trees in the world.
3. Strategically planting trees and shrubs can save you up to 25 percent on your energy bills. A shade tree can help cool your home by as much as 20 degrees in the summertime. Not only do they provide shade in the summer, but serve as a windbreak in the winter, too.
4. Scientists have found that trees can flood their leaves with chemicals called phenolics when the insects begin their raid. They can also signal danger to other trees so they can start their own defense. Willow trees, for example, emit certain chemicals when they’re attacked by webworms. Other willows then produce more tannin, making their leaves harder for the pests to digest.
5. Decomposing leaf litter returns to the soil as organic matter. Trees also reduce soil erosion by binding soil in place – this increases the soil’s potential to retain water, and can be beneficial in times of flooding and drought.
6. In the UK, the oldest tree is thought to be a yew in Scotland, estimated to be around 3,000 years old.
7. You can count the tree rings to find out how old it is! Did you know that you can see how old a tree is by counting its rings? Trees have growth rings inside their trunk. If you count each ring – that is how many years it has been alive for!
8. By planting nearly 20 million trees, the earth, and its population will be provided with 260 million more tons of oxygen. Those same 20 million trees will also remove the 10 million tons of CO2.
9. The limbs of a tree are not perfectly round. They have a compression side (the upper side) and a tension side (lower side) which enables them to support their own weight plus the weight of the leaves, nuts, or fruits, suspended in mid-air.
10. Bark of trees that grow in the shade is mostly thin, while the bark of trees that grow in sunny places is thicker.
