Life truly will find a way to live. Did you know Ponderosa Pines will sprial in harsh conditions to help stablize their structure? I had no idea trees could do this, until I visited Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument and saw the skeletons of ponderosas blasted by the extinct volcano's most recent explosion, where the strips of exposed wood, devoid of bark, do indeed spiral up the trunk. The branches of the tree (what were left, anyway) sprialed and knotted as well, giving the tree a gnarled look that spoke of a tough will to live. The conditions of growing on an active volcano can't have been easy, but you have to give the trees props for trying. Even now, a thousand years later, only a few trees dot the cinder cone and the surrounding lava fields, sucking at the knife-sharp rocks to try to get a hold on the land. Someday the trees will win and life will return to the volcano.
Leave me a comment below and tell me if you knew trees could spiral. How neat!
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