THE TREE: A NATURAL HISTORY OF WHAT TREES ARE, HOW THEY LIVE, AND WHY THEY MATTER PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Science Writer and Broadcaster Former Editor Colin Tudge | 459 pages | 23 Oct 2007 | Three Rivers Press (CA) | 9780307395399 | English | New York, NY, United States Turkey Tail Fungus - Katharine Ordway Natural History Study Area - Macalester College Its texture is also very tough and leathery compared with many other fungi which have more delicate skins. The Turkey Tail fungus does not have gills, but rather pores, which sets it apart from many other common fungi. The pores can be seen very clearly through a dissecting microscope. The family that the Turkey Tail belongs to, the polypores, all have these tiny structures on the underside of their. Each of these pores holds spores that the fungus uses for reproduction much like the gills that are found in most other mushrooms. These pores are an excellent way to tell the difference between Trametes versicolor and Stereum ostrea, the False Turkey Tail fungus. They can live on over 70 different genera of hardwood trees and several conifers in the United States. Organisms that obtain nutrients from decomposing matter, like the Trametes versicolor are called saprotrophic organisms. More precisely, the Turkey Tail fungus breaks down the dead wood of a tree, using it as nutrients for itself while helping clear the forest for new growth. An organism that degrades cellulose more quickly creates red rot. He gives the example with the two legged birds and the for legged horse in comparison with humans. Separating the very kingdoms of nature isn't as simple as it used to be thought to be and from the 5 kingdoms there are more. People didn't really know what to do with bacterias so they didn't even get a kingdom but a domain of their own which is another category or layer of classification. The next chapter is how trees then came to be which starts around 3 billion years ago when the world was vastly different and life was a metabolizing slime that lives in hot pools with poisonous gases. A thermophile which seems insane to us but "we", humans animals, plants, fungi and so on, are technically the abnormal ones that evolved out of that state. Why is this relevant? The essence of life is actually metabolism which this slime could do. The most primitive for of what we know as life. Natural selection still plays a part with this slime and over billions of years, some cells developed one way and others in another way depending on the environment and that is what eventually formed the complex Bactria. No matter how many times I restart this chapter to try and understand the science behind the next few enormous steps that will eventually make trees, I can't seem to grasp it. The organisms eventually become more complex and with pigment, to algae, enlarge to plants, different forms of reproduction from spores to the improved seeds. Those are the basics to where the rest of the book can focus on what we know as trees which are conifers and broad leafed trees. Before that tudge gives some noteworthy examples of other plants that have a different method of reproduction. The cycads and the Gingko trees. So the next chapter focuses on wood which is one of nature's really greatest and most beautiful inventions. As a comparison to us, wood acts like the veins and bone structure for the tree. I learnt that the separate rings of the tree show and the seasons and seeing how think they are will show you how successful that particular season on that year was. All trees have Cork cells as they are water and for proof. Some have more than others, for example the cork Oak tree in the Mediterranean. Bark is also multi functional protecting from diseases or shedding from other growths weighing the tree down or like the Eucalyptus tree, an oil bark that sheds around the tree and quickly burns, preventing the tree from burning itself. What also varies heaps inconsistently are the different types of hardness and age of wood. This won't just be dictated by its environment but also by its competitors. The pattern of wood acts similarly to the fingerprints of human hands. If there is no real use to have the same pattern then or genes allow options and not set rules. Certain parts of the tree have wood that is harder than in other parts. Example is that of the top of broad leafed trees. Sappy wood generally on the outside layer is better for resistance and hard wood inside in better for crushing strength. That's why English bows were made out of the trunks of yew trees. Most importantly, wood is there so yes can grow big. The book turns then to conifers. A much older group of trees that dates 3 hundred million years ago and is hay day ended around the time mammals first appeared. They are nowadays a much more rare group of trees with only known types in comparison to the thousands of broad leafed trees. Most of them being native across the northern hemisphere. They are lovers of light which might be suprising judging on the dark forests they inhabit but they get around this by having a pointy to and taking in light from the sides. Tudge then breaks down each group of conifers which makes this exactly the type of book I wanted in the first place. He starts with the arokarias which are incredibly old, not many species and mainly found in the southern hemisphere, mainly in New Caledonia. A particularly well known old tree is in New Zealand, named Tana mahuta. Next was the Cupressaceae which include Cedar trees, some Cypress trees and the mighty Redwood. How can you not love the those giant, old and red beings. The Pinaceae were next as the most common family of the conifers and certainly the most economically successful group. These are the real Pine trees and Christmas trees that we know. Podocarpus os a much larger group but not as numerous, mainly found in the southern hemisphere, which a week known one was the kaikatia of new Zealand and sacred to the Maori people although they did cut down many of them themselves but complain about it too. And lastly the Taxaceae of the different yew trees. After the basic intro to flowering trees, I was interested with the different variations of pollinating and how flowers which are pollinated by other animals a partnership that Darwin talked about as opposed to the standard survival of the fittest tend to be more "showy" than the ones that are pollinated by the wind. Because of the fucking ridiculous amount of trees, it's very difficult condensing then enough and group them to a number that is comprehensible for non experts. Originally it was dicots and monocots but the dicots became so vast and varied with many notable exceptions, that even that has to be broken down. This book breaks it down monocots, eudicots and a mixed bag of primitive dicots that are similar to what the original flowering plant ever was millions of years ago. The main 2 trees or plants in this group are the beautiful Chinese magnolias and the water lilies. More interestingly was the bit about the tulip trees which also fit under this, with their fleshy and symmetrical light coloured flowers. Several other different trees are briefly mentioned in this group that I frankly didn't even know we're trees like cinnamon, nutmeg, bay leaves and avocados which have a specific system of having two different flowers to avoid inbreeding. The next chapter was on the monocots which don't have secondary growth which is how wide a tree gets. The main tree of the monocots are the palm trees. Palm trees are generally relatively similar to each other with some exceptions of the trunk being underground or exceptionally fat like elephant palms. They can have spiney trunks that act as a protection and generally have huge and heavy fruits and seeds, the coconut of course. Despite not having a large root system like eudicots, palms are incredibly strong and would take a hurricane to topple them. Also belonging to the monocots are the pineapple and the banana tree and finally the very useful and common bamboo. What needs to be said about bamboo which isn't obvious. On to the eudicots, like the macadamia which are the only native Australian plant to be internationally economically successful. Run by mistletoe and sandalwood. Katsura, from Japan with their dark twisting trunks and round leaves especially beautiful when yellow. Finally he breaks down the use and history of a hugely important plant in international economy, the rubber tree. Manaus despite being in the middle of the Amazon became a hugely successful economic him in Brazil, and they even built a successful international opera house. The English took the rubber tree to English southeast Asia, Malaysia nowadays is the biggest producer of natural rubber despite their competitors, synthetic rubber created by the Americans in the second World war after being deprived of Asian resources from Japan. The debate of whether bio piracy is legit was something that tudge shows the hypocrisy in which most of Brazil's successful exports are not native. The next tree that gets a bit more attention are the mangroves and how they are so important to the ecology of the area and some bad examples of people ruining them for no good reason.