We don’t often think about the roots of trees until there is a problem. A forester friend of mine called it a “fencepost mentality.” Being underground, they are often out of sight out of mind. However ...

Why do you have five fingers? Why not ten, or twenty, or one? Why do so many animals have five fingers? Five seems to be the perfect number for most hands. Oddly, the first vertebrates to come onto ...

A plant’s root system has a profound effect on its overall health. Look at the roots of a sick, struggling plant, and you will often see a sick, struggling root system. While plants may tolerate ...

The road to the Tree of Life in Bahrain feels like a wrong turn, with one long stretch of the Sakhir Desert folding into another.

Tree roots growing at or slightly above the soil surface are called surface roots. Homeowners having trees with these surface roots are frustrated with the additional challenges posed by mowing and ...

Beach visitors pose with the “Tree of Life” on Kalaloch Beach in Olympic National Park before the tree sank during storms in early 2025. Mathew Nichols Photography Courtesy A tree that seems to defy ...