Riddle #9 - Our journey through the layers and their functions in a tree trunk culminates with the innermost components. We’ll go easy on this one - just name them!

Answer: Growth in the diameter of plants is due to the cell divisions in the cambium, an extremely thin cylinder of meristematic tissue found just under the bark. New cells are formed on both sides of the cambium each year. Those to the inside make up the xylem, which conducts water and nutrients; and those to the outside make up the phloem, which transports sugars, amino acids, vitamins, hormones, and stored food. In the xylem, the fibers provide strength and the vessels allow water and nutrient flow to the leaves.

More explanation about our three riddles around the components of tree trunks can be found at:

• Tree Trunk from Iowa State University Extension at https://naturalresources.extension.iastate.edu/forestry/tree_biology/101.html
• Minnesota DNR's Minnesota Forest Treasures: www.dnr.state.mn.us/forestry/education/foresttreasures/partsofatree.html

Riddle #8 – September 2022

Now that we’ve got that girth thing figured out, let’s take a closer look at this vital component of a tree trunk. That vascular or cork cambium produces conducting cells in two layers. What is the outer layer called and what its function? Ditto for the inner layer?

​Answer: The outer layer is phloem, sometimes referred to as the inner bark, the vascular tissue that conducts sugars and other metabolic products downward from the leaves.
The inner layer is xylem, located toward the inside of the cambium layer. Xylem is the vascular tissue through which most of the water and minerals of the tree are conducted.

 Riddle #7: Ever wish your expanding “girth” could garner the same appreciation accorded to the DBH (diameter at breast height) of trees? One reason starts with a thin layer of cells that contributes to the expanding girth of a tree and ultimately produces its bark. What is that layer called? Succeeding riddles will delve deeper!
Answer: The cork cambium contributes to the expanding girth of a tree. The cork cambium is a thin layer of cells that ultimately produces the bark of the tree.

Riddle #6: A distinctive feature of this native hardwood tree is “squarish stems”. Can you name the tree and perhaps two other distinctions for this tree?
Answer: Blue ash, Fraxinus quadrangulata The botanical name is from Latin “four-angled ash” referring to the squarish twigs. American settlers used a bluish color extracted from the twigs as a dye. Perhaps most interesting recently is the theory that healthy blue ash trees appear to have some resistance to the deadly emerald ash borer.  Learn more here:  
https://kimmerer.com/trees/blue-ash/
https://kimmerer.com/blue-ash-and-the-emerald-ash-borer/
and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraxinus_quadrangulata

Riddle #6: What family of trees often retain their dead leaves after others have dropped them? And what is this phenomenon called?
Answer: Leaf marcescence common in the Fagaceae, the tree family that includes oaks, beeches and chestnuts, this function retains dead leaves on the tree well after other trees are completely bare. This is mentioned in our our book review of The Nature of Oaks, and on the kwoa.net website at Resources > Publications

Riddle # 4: With baseball season finally in play, this month’s Wood You Not Know It? riddle is a double header with the April quiz. As a noun it is “the scientific study of trees”. Its adjective form is “having the shape or form of a tree”. Extra credit for identifying a noun related to this word for “the science or technique of dating events, environmental change, and archaeological artifacts by using the characteristic patterns of annual growth rings in timber and tree trunks.”
Answer: Dendrology. The related term is dendrochronology. 

1. Dendro is the Greek word for “tree”.
2. Chron is the Greek word for “time”.
3. Ology is also Greek word for “study”.
4. So, putting them all together you have, dendrochronology meaning “using trees to study time”.

Wikipedia’s definition of Dendrochronology, or tree-ring dating, is the scientific method of dating tree rings, also called growth rings, to the exact year they were formed. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, the study of climate and atmospheric conditions during different periods in history from wood. 

Riddle #3: This word is defined as “resembling a tree in growth or appearance”. It takes on elevated meaning in a recently published book of poems by the first National Youth Poet Laureate. A derivation of this adjective names the state botanical garden of Kentucky.
Answer: ABORESCENT – resembling a tree in growth or appearance;
arbor – “tree” + escent – “growing into” Latin.

References: See the poem Arborescent I in Call Us What We Carry, a poetry collection by Amanda Gorman, published December 7, 2021 by Viking Press.

Derivation:  The Arboretum, State Botanical Garden of KY at UK. Robin Wall Kimmerer uses the term interarboration in discussion of the new Orion book Old Growth (Yale Forest Forum, 9/18/21 at https://yff.yale.edu/). She states that “Trees and forests grow us and grow through us. Old Growth is not about ‘trees,’ but about this tree and that tree as individuals.”

Riddle #2 – March 2022: What tree is named after [a body] part of a deer and why?,
Answer: Buckeye – got its name because the nut looks like the bright eye of a deer when laid in the palm with the fist closed around it so the seed peeps out from the circle formed by the index finger and thumb. From Old Growth: Buckeye by Scott Russell Sanders, 2021, Orion magazine, p.118.

Research: Ohio's nickname is "The Buckeye State" partially because many buckeye trees once covered Ohio's hills and plains. In 1953, the Ohio Buckeye, Aesculus glabra, was declared Ohio's official state tree. The name "buckeye" stems from Native Americans, who called the nut "hetuck," which means "buck eye" (because the markings on the nut resemble the eye of a deer). The Ohio Buckeye is also commonly found in Kentucky woodlands.

Alternate Answer: Several people suggested Staghorn Sumac. Although the puzzle was aiming for Buckeye, we certainly agree that the alternate answer is acceptable. Forking structure and the velvety hairs covering the berries resemble a stag's horns, thus the common name.