Wyrd and
Wonderful
Facts about Trees (continued) - Page 3
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The Amazing Gingko Tree
The Gingko tree has been called a living
fossil, because it has changed little in 180.000.000 years. It provided
food for dinosaurs and yet can still be found in parks, streets and
gardens today. It is highly resistant to pollution and unaffected by
pests, having outlived all its natural predators. One special Gingko in
Japan managed to survive the atom bomb in 1945, when little else did.
Although the tree was re-discovered in China, it used to grow on many
continents once upon a time: Evidence of this has been found in America,
Australia and in Britain on the Isle of Mull.
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a Japanese version of the Chinese 'yin-kuo', meaning 'silver-fruit'. The
common name for the tree is "Maidenhair Tree", due to the unique
shape of the leaves, which is reminiscent of a traditional oriental girl's
hair style, as well as duck's feet. The tree has many medicinal qualities of which its anti-microbial,
vasodilatory, anti-allergenic, anti-asthma, anti-tubercular and
cholesterol lowering properties are best recognised. It also lowers
cholesterol. Its beneficial effects on the circulation has shown to be
useful in a variety of different diseases, such as early dementia, stroke
recovery, short-term memory problems, disorders of the eye such as macular
degeneration, some types of tinnitus, Raynaud's disease, intermittent
claudication, etc. It has also been used in conditions as varied as
asthma, cancer and the flu. However, the dosage needs to be quite high and
used on a long-term basis in many cases to be effective. On the one hand,
this is not a problem as it is a very safe herb, even in doses many times
higher than those recommended. On the other hand, there are not enough
Gingko's around and they are very slow growing trees. It is a very
graceful tree, but the female of the species produce a sort of plum, which
reeks obnoxiously when it is ripe and specially when it is crushed. The
seed within it is edible, but only after it has been cooked. Fifty or more
of the seeds can cause seizures in children. It seems to be
pleasant roasted or fried and makes a good breakfast item after
a wild party, because it helps to relieve hangovers. |
Studying the rainforest canopy
"Scientists know less about the
upper canopy of the tropical rainforest than they do about the Moon!
Although some early intrepid explorers ventured up liana and moss-covered
tree-trunks, braving myriad stinging and biting insects - it was only in
the 1970's, when a biologist hauled a bug-smoker high into the tree-tops
that scientists really began to understand about the rainforests. Hundreds
of different insects fell gassed out of the canopy, many previously
unknown, raising the estimate of insect species from one million to ten
million. Latest discoveries now put that figure up again.
it's not just the insects which have amazed researchers. Arrow poison
frogs pursue the most devoted of family lives high in the boughs. When a
female lays her tadpoles, she takes each of them up to the tree-tops,
depositing a single tadpole in the water-filled cup of the many plants
that festoon the branches. Each day returning to feed her offspring.
Scientists are baffled as to how she manages to remember in which plant
each of her children are safely secreted.
More familiar tree-top wanderers are sloths - hanging upside down, by
their powerful claws, moving at their famous leisurely pace. Algae growing
on their fur camouflages them from predators. So powerful is the sloth's
grip that in death it remains hanging as it decomposes.
Using climbing ropes fired over the branches by cross-bows and catapult,
scientists have been able to join the sloths and frogs. French scientists
have even devised a hot-air balloon "magic carpet", which can be
lowered on to the top of the forest to form a safe study-platform from
which to observe the wealth of life in the tree-tops."
Scary statistics from the
Boreal Forest
The intro of www.borealnet.org,
the website of organisations aiming to protect the Boreal Forests of North
America have the following statistics:
- In Canada an acre of forest is cut
every 12.9 seconds, which is nearly 5 acres per minute.
- Trees logged from Canada's in 1994/95
- a single year- would fill more than 4.300.000 logging trucks; lined
up bumper to bumper they would extent long enough to encircle the
world 2½ times.
An eight pound monster
fruit
The Durian tree grows in the
rainforests of Borneo and produces a monster fruit, which is extremely highly
regarded for its aphrodisiac and nutritious qualities. It weighs a
stunning eight pounds and is larger than a human head. The
fruits are armoured with vicious spikes, which are all the more
intimidating when they fall from the tree, which can grow up to a height
of a hundred feet! When they splat down to the ground, they may split to
reveal a greenish-yellow flesh, which reeks of open sewage and onions. Gourmets prize it exceedingly as it is said
to taste of "strawberries, raspberries, caramel and cream, but eaten
in the confines of a badly neglected public toilet." The famous
19th century botanist Wallace said "To eat a Durian is a new
sensation, worth a voyage to the East to experience."
The Durian is dependent for its pollination on a cave-dwelling bat,
which is yet another example of the importance of 'whole eco-systems' if
we want to continue enjoying these remarkable fruits, which are not only
a curiosity, but also have considerable economic value.
 The Jay's "Specialized knowledge in
the best treatment for planting oaks still amazes the experienced
forester. (In Germany the bird is called the Eichelhäher, meaning
'acorn-carrier). With regard to this secret, Dr. August Bier has some
interesting things to say. When considering the question of how many trees
can be left to plant and spread themselves, he reminds us that acorns and
beechnuts remain lying under the crowns of their respective parents. And
since they do not grow well in the shade of their own species, the
forester must operate artificially. 'In untouched Nature,' he continues,
'these trees would have but limited dissemination were it not for a very
ingenious bird who steps in and cares for their spread in a wonderful
fashion. This bird is the Jay. He carries away the acorns and beechnuts,
one in his beak, the rest in his crop, and sticks them into the soil, or
far more often into the covering over it, especially into pine needle
carpets. And he seems to do this in a much better way than the forester.
He reforests evenly over the whole area, never puts several acorns
together, but always at the correct planting distances, so that a correct
and useful stand of trees results. Here and there he also sows in
rows, again keeping the correct planting distances..... I wonder ever and
again over the fact that the wild pigs let the jay-planted acorns alone
while they root up those planted by me, to the very last one, if I do not
protect them with fences.'
From: John Stewart Collis, "The Vision of Glory, the extraordinary nature of
the ordinary" (first published in 1972 and later in Penguin
Books)
More about Acorns
A mature Oak tree can produce 50.000
acorns in one year. Most are eaten by animals or fall where they can't
grow. The few which germinate are almost all grazed or trampled on. If
just one in 100 of all the acorns escapes being eaten, and if one in 100
of those seedlings survives to bear acorns, then the oak population will
remain stable.
Paper consumption
By 1993 paper consumption in the 20th
century had increased twenty-fold (2000%) and is expected to rise at least
another 80% between 1993 and 2010.
Do we really want to shred up the lungs of the Earth to receive yet more
unwanted junk-mail through our letterboxes?
A Tree Remedy Story:
Quinine
Malaria is still a huge
health problem in the world, and in Britain we associate it with more
exotic countries. In the 17th century it was the world's number one killer
disease and endemic throughout Europe too. During the 1630's Jesuit
missionaries learned from the local population that the powdered bark of
Cinchona succirubra (which since has been known as "Peruvian
Bark") was an excellent remedy for the severe intermittent fever,
which a Malaria victim suffers and may be the cause of their demise. The
Jesuits imported this medicinal powder to Europe, but it was not well
received by many physicians in the more northern European countries,
partly because they were not familiar with how to administer it and maybe
also because using "the Jesuits bark" in non-Catholic countries
may have been frowned upon. This is story of a young apothecary's
apprentice who cleverly exploited this situation as told by Barbara Griggs
in "Green Pharmacy, a history of herbal medicine" (Jill
Norman & Hobhouse, 1981):
""Robert Talbor arrived in London and set himself up as a "pyretiatro"
or fever specialist, selling vast quantities of a secret remedy which had
huge success. He soon built the most lucrative practice in London,
successfully cured Charles II of a bout of malaria, was knighted,
appointed court physician , and sent to Paris when the Dauphin contracted
malaria to cure him too. All this while, Talbot solemnly warned his
patients and the public to "Beware of all palliative Cures and
especially of that known by the name of Jesuits powder..... for I have
seen most dangerous effects following the taking of that medicine."
thus cornering himself a lucrative monopoly of both the patients and the
remedy. Among those he cured were the Prince de Condé, the Duc de Roche-foucauld,
and the Queen of Spain. (One of the nicest gestures a king could make at
that time to an ailing royal friend was to dispatch his own physician to
him with a successful remedy.)
Tabor was paid 3.000 gold crowns, a large pension and a title by Louis
XIV, who promised not to reveal his secret until after the
miracle-worker's death. The Sun-King -who may well have enjoyed this
splendid joke on the medical profession - kept his word, and only after
Talbor's death in 1681 was his secret formula revealed: it contained rose
leaves, lemon juice, wine - and a strong infusion of Peruvian bark.
Since that early time Quinine has been recognised as one of the many great
medicinal gifts we have received from the trees.
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