[turbo_bird]

A funny looking fir tree on one of my dirtbike trails yesterday.


And a handheld 6 shot panorama with my 14mm just to see how it would turn out. I didn't crash my bike or anything, just ran out of traction in the mud and dropped it trying to turn around. I didn't want to tear things up with how wet it is here, so I just left it where it was while taking pictures. I kind of like how the panorama turned out though, so I might have to go back and try again without my bike in the shot, maybe bring my tripod too.

Kristian

[paulh]

Blooming cottonwood (I think), in Texas in early Spring.

[OrchidJulie]

Blooming cottonwood or crepe myrtle (I think), in Texas in early Spring.

Looks awfully big for a crape myrtle, even in Texas! But I've never seen cottonwoods in person, so I'm open to your interpretation...

[paulh]

Looks awfully big for a crape myrtle, even in Texas! But I've never seen cottonwoods in person, so I'm open to your interpretation...

The crepe myrtle do grow pretty big there but I'm leaning towards cottonwood in this shot.

edit - these are not crepe myrtle - they bloom later in lovely colors - red, pink & white. I've been away from TX too long and have forgotten!

[cobbu2]

Live Oak, San Antonio TX



K-7, 40/2.8 DA Limited

[WPRESTO]

A funny looking fir tree on one of my dirtbike trails yesterday.

FYI, in the event you did not know. A tree with a trunk curved in that was is classic evidence of a type of very slow mass wasting called "creep." The surface soil and loose material down several feet on the hillside is very slowly sliding down hill. It has been doing so for centuries, starting long before the seed for that tree hit the ground. As the tree grew, the creep tilted the growing trunk out of vertical, and the hormonal response in the tree caused the trunk to "try" to straighten back to vertical. Developers putting up developments on such a hillside never warn homeowners that because of this imperceptible and uncontrollable process in time their sidewalks will buckle, their foundations will crack, and their doors and window may start to bind because the walls will become ever so slightly out of plumb.

[OrchidJulie]

The crepe myrtle do grow pretty big there but I'm leaning towards cottonwood in this shot.

edit - these are not crepe myrtle - they bloom later in lovely colors - red, pink & white. I've been away from TX too long and have forgotten!

Understood. Crape myrtle -- some varieties, anyway -- can get pretty large here, too. There's one, "Queen's Crape Myrtle" (Lagerstroemia speciosa) that can grow very large, "shade tree" size, but it has lavender or pink flowers, and it has a different shape than the one in your image. But as I noted, I have never seen cottonwood in person, so I wouldn't presume to be able to ID it. Whatever it is, it's attractive!

[turbo_bird]

FYI, in the event you did not know. A tree with a trunk curved in that was is classic evidence of a type of very slow mass wasting called "creep." The surface soil and loose material down several feet on the hillside is very slowly sliding down hill. It has been doing so for centuries, starting long before the seed for that tree hit the ground. As the tree grew, the creep tilted the growing trunk out of vertical, and the hormonal response in the tree caused the trunk to "try" to straighten back to vertical. Developers putting up developments on such a hillside never warn homeowners that because of this imperceptible and uncontrollable process in time their sidewalks will buckle, their foundations will crack, and their doors and window may start to bind because the walls will become ever so slightly out of plumb.

Cool, thanks for the info. I hadn't really thought too much about the why of it, but I did know that a tree will always try to grow towards the sunlight. There are a couple other weird ones around here too that I should go take some pictures of. We just got our first snow of the year, so if it's nice weather tomorrow I might go for a bit of a hike and see if I can find them again.
Kristian

[WPRESTO]

Cool, thanks for the info. I hadn't really thought too much about the why of it, but I did know that a tree will always try to grow towards the sunlight. There are a couple other weird ones around here too that I should go take some pictures of. We just got our first snow of the year, so if it's nice weather tomorrow I might go for a bit of a hike and see if I can find them again.
Kristian

And actually it isn't the sunlight, it's gravity that governs the distribution of the critical growth hormone. If that one in particular (Gibberellic acid) is unbalanced = more on one side than the other, then the tree (and all plants SFAIK) grow faster on the side with more hormone (= the side that is lower) which causes them to straighten up. Tiny amounts of the five major plant hormones can have large effect of plant growth, so a tree doesn't have to be far out of plumb before it starts growing faster, or the cells elongate more on the downhill side.

AND plants are also responsive to sunlight. Some flowers turn gradually to face to sun from sunrise to sunset.

[Dartmoor Dave]

Trees growing at all sorts of crazy angles in the valley of the river Walkham.

[stevejo]

Panorama in Suckley woods, Worcestershire.

[/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/2kFZTjY]Suckley Woods[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/191186799@N08/]Steve Joyce[/url], on Flickr" target="_blank">

[Martin Stu]

Panorama in Suckley woods, Worcestershire.

great panorama

[Geodude]

Lone sentry awaiting the arrival of winter.

[Martin Stu]

Lone sentry awaiting the arrival of winter.

great shot

[WPRESTO]

great shot

+1 on that. Everything works in that image. Wonderful sky.