REES KEEP SECRETS

For all the knowledge that our species has acquired, it is interesting to know that nature still has some secrets.

For example: The flood of 1993 inundated thousands of acres of woodlands, including areas near Cape Girardeau along the Mississippi River. After the water receded, the flooded trees began to snap off in the wind -- not at the bottom of the tree nor at the top, but precisely at the high-water mark during the flood.

Why?

Well, a couple of tree experts have some theories, but they don't agree. One says that during the flood the loss of oxygen killed the part of the tree under the water while the above-water portion stayed alive for awhile. Because the bottom part was dead longer, the wood weakened and created a break line at the high-water mark. The other theory is that the floodwater caused the bottoms of the trees to swell, causing cells to rupture. The tree's natural defense system produced a wall of waterproof cells at the high-water mark to seal off the top of the tree from the bottom.

Pretty interesting, but the fact remains no one knows for certain why the trees broke off the way they did. The score for now remains Trees 1, Experts 0.