It is interesting to know

Popular poplars

Growing in most of the eastern USA and now blooming with showy flowers is one of the tallest and most beautiful of eastern hardwood trees: the yellow poplar. Its wood is used for furniture, crates, musical instru­ments and pulpwood. Its flowers give the tree its nicknames of tulip-poplar and tulip-tree (figure 1.5). Standing upright at the ends of leafy twigs are
the two-inch tall cup-shaped flowers that resemble tulips. They’ve six rounded green petals that are orange at the base. The flowers mature into tan cone-like fruits composed of many overlapping bullets, that shed from the still-upright fruit in fall. Another identifying feature of the tulip-tree is its squarish leaves with broad tips and straight bases, besides the leaf looks like the capital letter T.T. for tulip-tree.

Interesting facts about trees

· Only plants produce enough new oxygen to support life on Earth. In one year, an average tree inhales 12 kilograms (26 pounds) of CO₂ and exhales enough O₂ to keep a family of four breathing for a year.

· Trees can do some pretty interesting things to survive. For example, the baobab lives in tree that parts of Africa, where it is hot and dry for long periods, stores water in its thick trunk during the rainy season. When the rains have stopped and it is hot and dry again the trunk shrinks as the tree uses up the stored water.

· Some trees are even covered with spikes for protection,like thistreespeciesinHonduras (figure1.6).

Topic for discussion.

Do you know any interesting facts about trees?