Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Gyrocarpus americanus is a slender, deciduous tree with smooth, grey bark. The tree grows to about 12 m in height. The leaves are spirally arranged, crowded near the ends of the branches, and grow up to 150 × 120 mm in size. They are ovate, often 3-lobed, dark green above, paler and greyer below, with velvety surfaces, 3-veined from the base ...
Like all Leucadendrons, this tree is dioecious, with separate male and female plants. The fruit is a heavy woody cone, containing numerous seeds ; each seed is a small nut with a silky-haired helicopter-like parachute, enabling it to disperse by wind.
The shape of a samara enables the wind to carry the seed further away from the tree than regular seeds would go, [3] and is thus a form of anemochory. In some cases the seed is in the centre of the wing, as in the elms (genus Ulmus ), the hoptree ( Ptelea trifoliata ), and the bushwillows (genus Combretum ).
The tree produces spiky green fruits about the size of a golf ball, which turn brown and drop off the tree over an extended period beginning in fall and continuing over the winter.
The advantage of using an airplane/helicopter is the ability to quickly seed large areas, even remote areas, otherwise impractical to be used in active reforestation. Aerial seeding is therefore best suited to sites whose remoteness, ruggedness, inaccessibility, or sparse population make seedling planting difficult.
The capsules explode when ripe, splitting into segments and launching seeds at 70 m/s (250 km/h; 160 mph). [5] One source states that ripe capsules catapult their seeds as far as 100 m (330 ft). [9] [verification needed] Another source states that seeds are thrown as far as 45 m (150 ft) from a tree, with a mode of about 30 m (100 ft). [10]
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
It is well preserved and common in the fossil record. Like other Lepidodendrales, species of Lepidodendron grew as large-tree-like plants in wetland coal forest environments. They sometimes reached heights of 50 metres (160 feet), [1] and the trunks were often over 1 m (3 ft 3 in) in diameter. They are often known as "scale trees", due to their ...