Trees and Growth Rings
As trees grow, the inside of them develop patterns called rings. The rings can tell us a lot about the tree. As everyone knows, each ring represents a year of the tree’s life, but it also can tell us the weather and when a ring was formed. Lighter-colored rings grow faster in the spring, while the darker-colored rings grow in the summer and take a longer time to develop. The speed of the ring formation is because of how cells and tissues grow underneath the bark.
Based on the weather and the characteristics of the rings, we can tell if the tree was under duress. For example, was it a rainy spring, or scorching summer, or even a forest nearby in the woods? The rings in a tree are like a biography of a person. Each ring is a chapter in the tree’s life.