Information...
Common name: American Sycamore
Scientific name: Plantanus occidentalis
Forest Bathing...
Coined by the Japenese, forest bathing is said to be a form of stress release. Since the 1980s, the Japanese have managed to reserve forests to aid in the relaxation of their citizen, scientists have proven 15 minutes in a forest setting can reduce not only people’s stress levels, but their heart rate and blood pressure improves.
Citation
http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/10/health/forest-bathing/index.html?scrlybrkr=82c23abb
Importance of Trees...
Aside from being the grandest living plants ever recorded, trees are responsible for more than you may think. Trees link us humans to the past, present, and future. They provide us with O2, they store CO2, stabilize the soil and give life to many living organisms. Everything about a tree’s being is essential and beneficial to our everyday lives. For instance, trees act as a physical filter, filtering out all the unneeded substances such as dust.
Citation
Why are trees so important? (n.d.). Retrieved September 20, 2017, from https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/the-regents-park/things-to-see-and-do/gardens-and-landscapes/tree-map/why-trees-are-important
Poem Especially for My Tree:
I can’t fathom a better site to see,
than my very own Sycamore tree…
God plainly created and nurtured it uniquely just for me.
QUALITATIVE DATA...
- Height: 49 ft.
- Mass: 14273 g
- Density: 6.06 g/in^3
- CBH: 5 in.
USING A CLINOMETER TO FIND THE HEIGHT OF A TREE:
- Pick a spot: You should be far enough away from your tree to be able to see the top of it
- Measure angle: Look through the hole of the clinometer to find the angle of vision from your eye to the top of the tree
- Measure distance: Once you have your angle of vision, use a tape measure to find the distance from the spot you're standing to the base of the tree
- Find your eye height: Calculate your eye height (ground level to your eye)
- Draw a picture: It is helpful to draw a picture and write out all the information you have
- Model as a triangle: Simplify drawing by turning it into a right triangle. Label your triangle with the angle you read on your clinometer as well as the distance you were standing from the tree
- Solve for x: We can find x in this triangle (which represents the portion of the height of the tree from eye-level up) by using some basic trigonometry. Specifically the tangent ratio of the triangle
- Coming with eye height: Once you have solved for x, add your eye height to your calculations
Unique Useages of my Tree...
- Valuable for timber
- Recommended for buffer strips around parking lots or for median strip plantings in the highway because of how gorgeous they are
- Provides lots of shade
Citation
Yale University. (2014, February 27). Retrieved September 27, 2017, from http://naturewalk.yale.edu/trees/platanaceae/platanus-occidentalis/american-sycamore-29
WATER COLORINGS
The Forest Fungal Network...
Fungal roles in soil ecology: underground networking
Fungi are made up of tiny threads called mycelium. Mycelium travel underground and connect the roots of different plants in an area, even distinct species, together, enabling them to communicate and so much more. Researches say the trees of the forest and the mushrooms we find growing nearby them are so interconnected that it is challenging for them to view trees as individual organisms any longer.
Citations
http://bigthink.com/philip-perry/plants-and-trees-communicate-help-each-other-and-even-poison-enemies-through-an-unseen-web
Buée, M., Reich, M., Murat, C., Morin, E., Nilsson, R. H., Uroz, S., & Martin, F. (2009, August 24). 454 Pyrosequencing analyses of forest soils reveal an unexpectedly high fungal diversity. Retrieved September 20, 2017, from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2009.03003.x/full
6 Word Memoir...
Trees are for you and me.
Credits:
Created with images by bob_jenkins - "blue heron in sycamore tree, ira road akron ohio" • Dreaming in the deep south - "Max" • dierken - "Mushrooms"