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
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
Thanks for the tip, Jenni! Off to check Google Images for what you described… 🙂
strange. i can't even venture a guess as i can't really see. it looks very interesting…