I'm going on a local "photo safari" later today. I've been tasked by the still-under-construction
HI-LO Trail project (I've been volunteering for months) to try to find a so-called "nurse tree" stump with a SMALL tree sapling growing on top of it.
Previously I'd snapped this photo of a young tree growing on top of an ancient stump ...
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... but for the HI-LO Trail website we want to tell a step-by-step story about how a mature tree either dies of old age, disease, blown-down by a storm, or logging ... and then a small sapling may sprout from the decaying stump, its new roots burrowing into the rotting wood and also stretching down to the forest floor, in turn becoming a mature tree itself, while the old stump rots away and disappears, sometimes leaving the new tree "standing on its tip-toes" suspended in the air ... like this ...
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Nurse trees and their offspring are not too common in the nearby Tyron Creek Natural Area park, but there are a few. I previously posted this photo of me standing next to a large example of a mature nurse tree offspring, its nurse tree long since gone ...
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... if I'm lucky I'll find the desired combination of stump with a tiny (approx. 1-2 foot tall) sapling growing on top, and take a decent photo of it. Wish me luck.