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TreeNote

TreeNote is a two minute weekly feature from renowned ecologist Dr. Nalini Nadkarni and KUER. Listen on podcast or on YouTube.

Episode List
  • I recently came across the work of a forest ecologist who studies fine roots — roots less the width of a grain of rice, but which make up 40% of a trees underground system.
  • The baobab tree has many intriguing nicknames: the camel tree, the bottle tree, the upside-down tree and the Tree of Life.
  • In a world with an ever-changing environment, how can we know what air quality was like before we kept weather records?
  • My husband, Jack, and I have been happily married for 41 years. But one issue we can argue about for hours is the fruit of the durian tree. He loves it. I detest it.
  • When you look at the cross section of the trunk of an old tree, you see that it has two zones: the sapwood, which is the younger wood that’s closest to the bark and the heartwood, which is the darker, central part of the trunk.
  • In the world of design and construction, the modest sheet of plywood has a surprisingly rich history.
  • The world of trees creates many superlatives — the oldest tree, the tallest tree — but I bet that the quaking aspen is the world's liveliest tree. Its round leaves flutter in the slightest breeze.
  • We’ve all seen pictures or witnessed firsthand the destructive force of high winds on trees — all those images of crushed homes and downed power lines.
  • On a recent camping trip in Nevada, I visited a display of petrified wood.
  • On a recent visit to south Florida, I was intrigued to learn about Spanish moss, a plant that looks like wispy gray hair draped in the crowns of live oak and other trees in subtropical woodlands.