Trees with a twist

Trees with a twist

When I walk through an evergreen forest, I like to keep track of which way the trees twist. Many conifers have a spiral grain in their wood, meaning the fibers run in a gentle helix around the trunk rather than straight up and down.

The history of the mulberry tree

It's that time of year when many of our sidewalks are stained dark purple with the fruit of the Mulberry tree, whose history is long and complicated.

The hidden world of fine tree roots

Fine tree roots are adventurers who hunt for ways to keep their tree watered and vibrant.

How tree rings can show us a tree's past — and future

Most of us have heard that you can tell how old a tree is by looking at the rings in a cross section of its trunk. But the scientists who work at the Center for Tree-Ring Science are finding more than just a tree’s age in them — they are also learning about their future.

The tree that lives at the edge of the world

National Geographic Explorer Brian Buma studies trees that live at the extreme. In 2020, he set out to answer a deceptively simple question: What is the world’s southernmost tree?