Mystery teeth revealed

Friday’s puzzle was tough!  Several of you were on the right track – this is a carnivorous plant. Right away Deb suggested a pitcher plant (then got sidetracked with chestnuts), but Derek was spot on with his guess of the “spiky bits” on a Nepenthes pitcher:

What the function of these spiky wings are is not clear to me; I did a little checking in the literature but failed to find anything convincing.  It does seem to suggest a close relationship with fly traps. … Continue reading this article “Mystery teeth revealed”

Friday mystery teeth

I’ve spent most of this afternoon at the NW Flower and Garden Show.  During my visit, I snapped a photo of this toothy plant part:

So the questions for today are….

What is this plant part?
What plant did it come from?
(And if you know its scientific name, that actually answers both questions at once.)

My husband is convinced this is too small a part of the plant for anyone to figure out the answesr. … Continue reading this article “Friday mystery teeth”

Breaking up Tree Week with an Important Announcement! (Or Not — depending on how you feel about shameless plugs)

OK, here it is, my one and only shameless plug — because my publisher says: Hey! You need to at least let people know that the book exists!

So — I’m excited to say that my next book, How The Government Got In Your Backyard, which I co-wrote with my good friend (and old college roommate) Eric Heberlig, who is an Associate Professor of Political Science at UNC Charlotte, is finally out.

In case it isn’t immediately obvious, I love to write.… Continue reading this article “Breaking up Tree Week with an Important Announcement! (Or Not — depending on how you feel about shameless plugs)”

Tree terrors continue

You might remember back in October 2009 I gave one of the first Friday quizzes.  The featured tree had epicormic shoots, and Monday’s answer revealed the neglected wire staking that was slowly girdling the main trunk.  (Be sure you click on those links to see what the tree looked liked in 2009.)

I thought you might be interested to see what this tree looks like now:

A picture is worth a thousand words….many of those unprintable.… Continue reading this article “Tree terrors continue”

Fascinating web site: when trees and objects collide

One of our international readers, Johannes, sent along this web site of photographs demonstrating what happens when trees meet immobile objects.  The text is in German, but the photos are self-explanatory.

Unspeakeable Acts of Pruning

(Hey, I think it’s Tree Week on the GP!)

Our land has a nice buffer of big, old oaks, hickories, and maples between us and the two-lane highway.  Power and phone lines thread through the middle of them. Thus, I have nightmares about orange Asplundh trucks.

So with much concern, I noted that utility crews and
subcontractors have been out in full force in our rural area,
inexplicably leaving one tree and then “pruning” another.

OMG that's awful

I pulled over and snapped this latest atrocity last night.… Continue reading this article “Unspeakeable Acts of Pruning”

Tree teaser untwisted

Once again you had some great diagnoses!  The popular view was neglected staking material, and you were right:

Peter’s answer was my favorite (I love puns – the worse the better!).  Tom, I hestitate to ask about your previous experience here….

As usual, thanks to all of you for playing our quiz.  I’ll try to be better about doing this every Friday.  Our survey results indicated you like this feature a lot.

Trees can be good plumbers

A short follow up to last weeks post on girdling roots.  Just to reiterate, the point of the post was that we need to be careful not to jump to conclusions when assessing tree problems.  It’s important to look beyond the first defect we see and consider additional causes.  And to also reiterate, girdling roots can be a serious problem and can lead to tree failures.  The photo below shows an example of tree that was both planted too deep and had stem girdling roots. … Continue reading this article “Trees can be good plumbers”

Tree teaser

Why is this western red cedar (Thuja plicata) so angry?  (Hopefully you can see the two “eyes,” nose and mouth.)

Answer on Monday!

Guano

One of the best organic fertilizers out there – at least in terms of how plants respond to it —  is bat guano.  As most of you probably already know, bat guano is made of bat droppings.  What you probably don’t realize is that bat droppings need to be aged for a while in an arid environment before they become guano.  Caves provide the perfect environment for this to occur, and so that is where most bat guano comes from.… Continue reading this article “Guano”