The exhalation of plants oxygenated our environment.

And so we breathe.

The photosynthesis of plants translates the sun’s energy into food.

And so we eat.

The compression of plants and plant-eating creatures into carbon-rich fossil fuels over millennia creates coal, gas, and oil.

And so we power our world.

I think of trees as our döppelgangers of the plant world: they stand tall like us—taller. Trees are at once familiar and also alien, rooted in place, engaging with a rich matrix of soil and communication below ground. A tree cannot flee; a tree cannot dance; but a tree has its own world of invisible intricate defenses and airborne courtship.

We are linked to these beings and yet sometimes it is hard to see them. In Arborlight, I seek to shed a little light on these companions of our time.

Reflections

You are welcome to share your reactions or photos here.

What was your experience of Arborlight?

Do you have a favorite tree on campus? A tree story to share?

Assorted Terms, Thoughts, & Images

Xylem: tissue that transports water and minerals upward from the roots in vascular plants.

Phloem: tissue that conducts sugars from photosynthesis downward from the leaves in vascular plants.

Marcescence: the persistence of dead leaves on a tree. Many deciduous trees shed their leaves in fall. Oak trees can hang onto their dried until as late as early spring. You’ll see that some of the trees from Arborlight are still sporting a few dried leaves.

Left: Swarthmore’s inauguration, as described on Swarthmore’s website: “On November 10, 1869, Lucretia Coffin Mott (founder) along with 800 other Quakers planted two oak salpings on newly founded Swarthmore College’s then treeless grounds. These saplings had been raised from acorns by Lucretia Coffin Mott’s recently departed husband, James Mott.” Center: a treeless Magill Walk. Right: Magill Walk in 1927

Images of male (left) and female (right) oak flowers, both of which grow on the same tree. The male flowers strike me as elegant and showy, draping down like droopy necklaces. They also produce the pollen that plagues me in the spring. The female flowers are small and hidden. When fertilized, these little buds grow into acorns. (images from https://landscapeplants.oregonstate.edu/plants/quercus-rubra)

Bibliography

Planta Sapiens, Paco Calvo and Natalie Lawrence

How Light Makes Life, Raffael Jovine

The Light Eaters, Zoe Schlanger

Finding the Mother Tree, Suzanne Simmard

The Nature of Oaks, Douglas W. Tallamy

Gathering Moss, Robin Wall Kimmerer

The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben