Trees
Trees are really good navigational tools, we will look at a few ways you can use trees to aid your navigation.
Tree Roots
When a tree grows it uses its roots not only to absorb minerals and water from the ground but to act as an anchor keeping the tree itself as upright as possible. When external factors play against the tree, the tree responds by changing its structure to cope. These external factors include wind, the sun, and even the angle of the slope the tree is growing on. If you look at photo 1 which is an Aspen you’ll notice that it has an extra long root that is protruding from the ground. This is a response to the wind pushing the tree. As the wind pushes against the tree it responds by creating larger and thicker roots to counteract the force. As the majority of the wind we get in England is from the south west (prevailing wind) the majority of supportive guy roots point towards a south westerly direction. So photo 1 was taken from the southern side of the tree facing north. This is not a hard and fast way of navigating as other factors can create this root structure such as soil type and erosion. Best tip is to take a sample of 4 or 5 trees for comparison.
Tree leaves.
Tree leaves can aid navigation in many ways, one of the nicest observations, one that many people say ‘oh i never noticed’ is the order leaves fall off a tree. As the autumn arrives and the leaves start to fall. The tree will shed the leaves that are least useful first, the ones on the shady side of the tree. As we know from looking at the sun earlier, the sun is predominantly in the southern skies so the tree will start to shed it’s northern, shady leaves first, maximising the photosynthesising properties of the remaining leaves (see photo 2 as an example).
Sun and shade leaves.
Following the same theme on leaves trees also have shade leaves and sun leaves. Shade leaves are darker and smaller than sun leaves which are larger and lighter in colour.
Lichen
See photo 3 – in this photo is a giant Cedar tree. If you look closely you will notice that it has a line down the middle with two shades of brown, one either side. The left hand side is actually lichen. It likes the sun, it prefers the warm sunny side of the tree so will be found growing on the southern sides of the tree click here for more on sunrise and sunset. This photo was taken from the eastern side of the tree facing west. There are other types of lichens that will be brighter if they are in the sun or prefer either shaded or sunny locations, however it’s rather an unreliable way to navigate so i’ll leave it out for the time being.
More to follow….