The Life Cycle of the Tree

In Irvine Park, there is a spectacular grove of sycamore (sick-ah-moor) trees. Not only are these trees beautiful, they are as tall as a ten-story building! They are HUNDREDS of years old! And what a story they have to tell. Just think how many children have played on and around these trees. They have scars just like people. Their limbs have been bent or broken over time. They die just like people, but they make new little baby trees while they are alive.

When I was hiking, I could see that a big storm was brewing. The wind blew and the clouds gathered. There was going to be heavy rain and lightning. In the third picture, do you see the branch sticking way up high? It acts like a lightning rod. It attracts lightning. You can see burn marks on the branch.

Look at the fourth picture. Do you see the lightning "scar" on the tree. Lightning is made of incredible amounts of heat. The heat makes the tree catch on fire. Part of the tree burns, but the rest of the tree lives on.

Lightning can zap a huge branch right off a tree, just like someone snapping a twig off of a branch. In the fifth picture, you can see that lightning blasted this huge tree trunk right to the ground. There are burn marks all over the trunk. When the trunk got burned, it got weak, so it broke into a few big pieces. Next, just like with boulders, the dead branches get weathered by wind and rain. They break apart into smaller pieces.

Finally, the "FIBS" go to work, chipping away at the dead pieces on the ground. In the sixth picture, you can see tunnels made by termites. Termites are insects that chew up wood. They make teeny, tiny poopie doobles which IS soil. So, the dead pieces of wood and the dead leaves are broken down by the FIBS. The FIBS create wonderful, rich soil. And what needs wonderful, rich soil to grow? A brand new baby sycamore tree! You can see a baby or "seedling" sycamore tree in the last picture, growing right in front of a tree with a big lightning scar.

So just as humans make youngsters and pass on, so do trees. Who is the oldest person you know? Who is the newest baby that you know? Now think about trees in your neighborhood. What is the biggest tree around your home, and what is the smallest? How old do you think they are?

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