a lesson in nature.

so hey!  did you enjoy my post about dead birds?  no?

well,  I admit, maybe it was a little far-fetched.  

and then I quickly recalled my 10th grade english class.  and the questions we had to answer after reading a poem or short story that went something like, "what do you think the author meant by...?" and we were supposed to figure out what the heck kind of weird, underlying message the author was trying to convey.  yeah, I always aced those.

and moving on,  today I would like to discuss aspens.

so class, did you know that aspens reproduce from shoots and suckers (referred to as "root sprouting") instead of seeds, like most trees do? (in case you were wondering, I learned this from my mother-in-law.)

"reproducing by means of 'root sprouting' results in a group of genetically identical trees."
that's why in a grove of aspens, you'll see one group whose leaves are still green, smack dab next to another group whose leaves have already changed to yellow.  so basically, each group of aspens grow from a different root system and therefore will change color at different times. (did you follow that? because I didn't.  and where as I aced english, I typically failed science.)  

see?  this blog is also educational.

  
anyway, I'm not much of a nature photographer, but just wanted to say that this group of aspens most likely grew from the same root system because they all look the same.

doh!

-jessica

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