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How Trees Grow: A Plain Guide to Tree Biology
A plain-language introduction to how trees grow: roots, trunks, buds, the cambium that adds girth, and how height and diameter increase season by season.
Forest Types and Biology
Tree Biology and Forest Life
How trees grow, feed, reproduce and defend themselves.
Dead Wood as Habitat
Why standing dead trees and fallen logs support insects, fungi, birds and other wildlife, and how dead wood changes as it decays over many years.
Decomposition and Nutrient Cycling in Leaf Litter
Follow fallen leaves as bacteria, fungi and soil animals break them down, returning nutrients and organic matter to the forest soil over months and years.
How Trees Defend Themselves against Insects and Disease
Bark, resin, chemical compounds and sealed-off wounds help trees resist insects and disease, but these defenses have limits, especially when trees are stressed.
How Trees Move Water from Roots to Leaves
Trees lift water from roots to leaves without a pump. Evaporation from leaves pulls water up through xylem, and this article explains how that works and its limits.
How Trees Reproduce: Flowers, Cones and Seeds
How broadleaf trees use flowers and fruit while conifers use cones, how pollen travels by wind or animals, and how seeds form, ripen and disperse.
Mast Years and Irregular Seed Crops
Why some trees, such as oaks and beeches, produce huge seed crops only every few years, what triggers a mast year, and how animals and forests respond.
Mycorrhizal Fungi and Tree Roots
How mycorrhizal fungi partner with tree roots, trading nutrients and water for sugars, the main types of partnership, and the limits of what is known.
Photosynthesis in Forest Trees
How tree leaves turn light, water and carbon dioxide into sugar, why sun and shade leaves differ, and how light, water and temperature limit the process.
Tree Rings and What They Record
How tree rings form each year, why some are wide and others narrow, and what they can reveal about past climate, fire and disturbance, with limits to know.
Understory Plants and the Light on the Forest Floor
How shrubs, ferns and wildflowers live in dim forest light, from early spring ephemerals to evergreen shade plants, and what changes when the canopy opens.
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