Something colourful for the last entry in Becky’s July squares.
Category: Becky’s squares
aralia decaisneana
A beautiful tree when in flower, at the Mt Lofty Botanic Park where it is not native, for Becky’s squares. I don’t know if it has a ‘common’ name.
At the end of a rainbow
Killer trees – the strangler
The strangler fig is a type of Ficus that grows in tropical rainforests and gets its name from the habit of growing on other trees, often resulting in the demise of the host. They are impressive and beautiful, despite their unfortunate behaviour, and are sometimes very old and massive.
And I’m a big fan of them!
For more square trees (trees for squares?) see here.
Tree ferns
For Becky’s squares.
I just love ’em.
Enchanted trees
Near Cradle Mountain, in Tasmania, is Enchanted Forest Walk. The scenery on this 1.6km trail is worthy of the name and I’ve included some trees for Becky’s squares.
Mountain Ash
The tall Mountain Ash trees of Mount Donna Buang, in the Alps of Victoria, were a sawyers dream when they were discovered in the 1800s. Although they tower into the air, the ones shown here are at the top of the mountain and more exposed to the conditions, hence they have a more sprawling aspect. I loved the mess and tangle of lines.
For more trees, see Becky’s squares.
Tree diagrams
Not the sole province of mathematics, tree diagrams go as far back as 1296 and have been used to organise information in every field of knowledge.
What they do have in common is a hierarchy and branches, but they can be rotated and tilted depending on the user and the purpose.
I was going to sketch up another example, but I thought I’d just borrow them from Creative Commons and square them up, and had a wealth of learning. Bits will be missing because, just like living trees, tree diagrams are rarely square.
From top left to right, we have Darwin’s tree of life 1859, a syntax tree, a family tree template, Phylogenetic tree of Theropods respiratory system, Haeckel’s foundations of science tree 1866, and one and a half medieval trees of knowledge.
But it can’t finish there, can it? I must include the famous Monty Hall Problem – that a contestant in a game show is presented with 3 doors, behind one of which is a great prize and the others have goats, or nothing. The contestant picks a door. The host reveals what is behind another door, which is (predictably) a goat. Two doors remain and the contestant is asked if they want to change their mind.
This tree looks at the probability of whether the contestant should switch.
I’ll return to the more predictable trees in future – 100%, despite stem-and-leaf plots calling and data needing truncation.
For more tree squares, go to Becky’s challenge.
Factor trees
So, I was trying to come up with a new angle on trees, and as my roots are firmly in teaching mathematics I’ve gone out on a limb and included this square for squares.
If anyone needs any explanation, please reach out. And if you are suffering mathphobia, don’t read my next post, as I sense more numeration germinating.
Tallest ghost
The Corymbia aparrerinja, or ghost gum, usually grows to 15m. Our star, or square, here, has been measured at 33m tall and is recorded in the National Register of Big Trees as the largest ghost gum in the country.
As it is estimated to be 300 years old, it also appears in the Northern Territory Register of Significant Trees and it’s now appeared in Becky’s squares.
The tree’s home is Trephina Gorge Nature Park, East MacDonnell Ranges, just out of Alice Springs. Definitely worth a visit.
