Tree-following: today's topic is BARK
For those in cooler climates who follow deciduous trees, this time year is often spent searching for alternative news. Our trees still show no evidence of change, at least not externally. That was the case when I visited my poplar and aspen last week. So I pondered their bark, which is more interesting than one might first think. The two trees are close relatives, both in the genus Populus. Yet they have very different bark strategies.