Ebony or Rosewood? Guild D-40 or Guild D-50?

I've said over and over, that every aspect of our life is influenced by plants. Music is a great example of how plant anatomy influences our lives.

I've been the proud owner of a Guild D-50 acoustic guitar since 1983. Before I purchased this beauty, I spent days, together with my friend Mo, frequenting the music stores of mid-town Manhattan and trying every guitar possible. We kept coming back to two Guild models: the D-40 and the D-50.

The ebony fret-board on my guitar

One of the main differences between these two great guitars is the wood used to make the fret-board: The D-40 boasts a fret-board made from rosewood, while the D-50's is made from ebony. In the end we both opted for the latter.

Ebony cost roughly 10 times more than rosewood, so what characteristics does it have that made us forkout the extra funds for these guitars?

Ebony has a very has a fine grain and is much harder than rosewood. This difference in density is felt in the fingertips which feel as if they move faster between fingerings. Aside from the feel, ebony boards impart the guitar with a unique sound which the trained ear can pick up. It enables great sustain, and a crisp sound with percussive overtones. But I wouldn't recommend an ebony fret-board for a novice guitarist; rosewood is much more forgiving.

Rosewood boards also gives a richer, warm sound. This is partly because of the anatomy of the wood. Rosewood has larger pores than ebony, and these microscopic pores absorb overtones.

This is just one example of how wood, which basically old, dead and filled xylem tubes, the tubes that trees use to transport water, influences music.

Christmas tree statistics

On the one year anniversary of this blog, I take inspiration from one of my favorite books of all time is How to Lie With Statistics, a great little book from 1954 that will teach you how to take all numbers with a grain of salt. For example in the past year, this blog has been accessed 23,698 times.

With that in mind, I thought it poignant to consider Christmas trees, (considering that it is Christmas Eve tonight).1

Those of you with real trees will have spent an average of $34.87 for your tree, while the 9.5 million of you with fake trees, forked out $70.55 for your trees. BUT, 16% of those of you with real trees, actually cut it yourself, which definitely affected the average cost of the trees!

The 80 foot spruce at Rockefeller Center

Of course the trees of the latter group last more than one year, so perhaps they've made a good investment. The weakening economy though shows that people aren't thinking long term as sales of fake trees are down 67% from 2007, when more than 35% of houses had fake trees.

Each real tree takes on average 7 years to grow, which means that there are currently about 350 million evergreen trees growing for the coming years' Christmases.

While all of the real trees come from either the US or Canada, 80% of the fake ones are grown in China.

If you are worried about sustainability, this is from the National Christmas Tree Association:
It is much better environmentally to use a natural agricultural crop and recycle it after the holidays. Real Christmas Trees are a renewable, recyclable, natural product grown on farms throughout North America. Unfortunately many people have the misconception that Christmas Trees are cut down from the forest. Real Christmas Trees are grown as crops, just like corn or wheat, and raised on a farm. Once they are harvested, new seedlings are planted to replace harvested trees. These would NOT have been planted if trees hadn't been harvested the previous year.  Fake Christmas Trees however are a non-renewable, non-biodegradable, plastic and metal product.

Happy Holidays to all!

1 source

An Apple for the New Year

"Why do we need so many kinds of apples? Because there are so many folks. A person has a right to gratify his legitimate taste. If he wants twenty or forty kinds of apples for his personal use…he should be accorded the privilege. There is merit in variety itself. It provides more contact with life, and leads away from uniformity and monotony." -- Liberty Hyde Baily

In the spirit of the Jewish New Year, some apple facts:

• Origins: Khazakistan (Thanks Borat!) and surrounnding regions in Central Asia
• # of genes (in Golden delicious): 57,000 (more than any other plant so far)
• First eaten by: Eve
• # of cultivars: 7,500
• amount grown in 2010: 60 million tonnes
• Largest grower: China
• Largest grower in US: Washington

And lastly, for those going to a Rosh Hashana meal, here is the proper way to dip an apple in honey:

What's an individual?

We expect then that within our bodies, each cell has the same genetic code, the same sequence of DNA, since all of our cells originated from the same fertilized egg. We understand that children are novel genetic combination of their parents, that twins share the same genetic code, and that individuals differ genetically one from the other. Overtime, these genetic differences provide the basis for evolution.

How strange then is the recent report that different parts of the same tree have different DNA sequences!

Ed Yong, reporting from the Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting , tells of the results from the laboratory of Brett Olds, where they determined the DNA sequence from different parts of the same black cottonwood. They found differences in thousands of genes between the topmost bud, the lowermost branch, and the roots.

As Olds told Yong, “This could change the classic paradigm that evolution only happens in a population rather than at an individual level.” 

The differences in the DNA sequences between the branches could conceivably lead to advantageous characteristics. Perhaps different branches of the same tree compete with one another for light, nutrients and pollinators, and this competition leads to Darwinian selection, whereby the most fit branches out-compete their neighboring branches.  The differences in DNA sequence would then be more likely carried on in the next generation by the branches that produced  more or heartier seeds.

Of course the caveat is that this is a blog reporting on a report of a report. i can't wait to see the research article, and for this paradigm to be tested by additional labs using other tree species. If it holds up, we'll have to rewrite some of our textbooks!

Presumed extinct - WRONG!

A Wollemi Pine at the U.S. Botanical Garden
in Washington D.C.

The Wollemi Pine is a majestic conifer that grows up to 40 metres high in the wild in a very specific area in Australia, with a trunk diameter of over one meter.The oldest known fossil of a Wollemi Pine  dates back 90 million years, though the Pines may have have been around since the Jurassic period 200 million years ago. It was presumed extinct for around two million years. However in 1994 a few living Wollemi Pines were discovered by a bushwalker in the Wollemi National Park just outside Australia's largest city, Sydney. Dubbed the botanical find of the century, the Wollemi Pine is now the focus of extensive research. Less than 100 adult trees remain in the wild and only a select few researchers are permitted to see the Wollemi Pine in it natural habitat. However, not to despair! Members of the public can view propagated plants at a number of botanical gardens around the world.

The Dragon's Blood Tree

Sometimes nature provides such beautiful surprises in the forms and shapes it builds.

Dracaena cinnabari, or as it is commonly referred to, the dragon's blood tree, is found only on the Socotra islands, off the Horn of Africa and to the south of Yemen. As often happens in isolated ecosystems (think of the Galapagos) wondrous and diverse species developed on this archipelago.

These trees which resemble gargantuan mushrooms are actually a unique type of monocot, similar to palm trees. But different from all other monocotyledonous trees, the dragon's blood tree continuously branches, with leaves only forming at the ends of the young branches. This gives it its distinctive shape. 

The name "dragon's blood" derives from its dark red resin which has numerous practical and medicinal uses for the natives.  

Hula skirts

Cordyline fruiticosa (Cabbage Palm)

The leaves of the Cabbage Palm (known as La'i in Hawaiian and Lauti in Samoan) are used to make Hawaiian hula skirts and the Tongan sisi dance dress. In Hawaiian lore, the plant has great spiritual power and even today is considered a good luck charm.  The leaves are so strong that they can sewn together and ridden in lava sledding (a traditional Hawaiian sport that's a cross between surfing and snow sledding)!

The strength of the leaves comes from the cellulose fibers, which are found in all leaves, but are especially thick in cabbage palm leaves. Chemically, cellulose, one of nature's strongest natural materials, is very similar to starch, one of the stickiest. Both are made of the sugar glucose, but with a slight difference. In starch the the glucose is arranged such that there's room for lots of water to surround it, which leads to its sticky nature. In cellulose the glucose is arranged such that long strings of the sugar bind to each other and exclude all water. This leads to a compact, highly stable, and very strong structure that per weight, is stronger than steel.

Methuselah, the 2000 year old date

The Methuselah date palm, 2012
Kibbutz Keturah, Israel

The date palm has been a source of food, medicine, shelter and shade for thousands of years. While the exact date trees grown in the bibical period are long extinct, in 2005, a 2000-year-old date seed recovered from Masada in the Judean dessert was successfully germinated. Genetic analyses have shown that this tree is distinct from all known date palms, and scientists want to see if the ancient tree has any unique medicinal properties no longer found in today's date palm varieties.


Unfortunately, Methuselah, true to its name, appears to be male, so we won't get any ancient fruit. Date palms are dioecious, meaning that there are separate male trees which make pollen, and female trees which make ovules which lead to fruit and seeds after fertilization with pollen from the male. But through careful genetic breeding, Methuselah can be used to pollinate modern species, and some of these offspring will be female. These hybrids can then be recrossed with Methuselah's pollen, to yield a new generation that's mainly the ancient date.

Food for silk

Morus alba (Mulberry)

The mulberry tree produces a tasty berry, but not because of this did the mulberry tree change history. Leaves of the mulberry tree are the sole food of the silkworm. 1400 silkworms eat 50 pounds of mulberry leaves to make just one pound of silk. The Chinese closely guarded the secret of silk production and so had a monopoly in supplying the great demand for silk by the Egyptians, Romans, Persians and other cultures. Trade of silk, and other wares, along the Silk Road from China through the Middle East and to Europe helped lay the foundations for the modern world.

The rarest plant on Earth

Encephalartos woodi (Wood's cycad) in the
Amsterdam Botanical Gardens

Wood's cycad is easily the rarest plant on Earth.  Only one plant was ever found in a small area of Ngoya Forest in South Africa in 1895 by John Wood (hence the name). Parts of this plant were removed and propagated by rooting and all specimens of Encephalartos woodii in different botanical gardens around the world are actually continuations of this one original tree. The original specimen was reomved from the wild in 1916, and died in 1964. As this tree was male, all of its clones are also male.

"I'll take 15 instant coffee trees please"

Berries from Coffea canephora (Robusta coffee)

If you drink two cups of coffee a day, then somewhere in the world there are 15 coffee trees growing just to supply your annual fix! Ok, so that you learned last month in my blog about the Arabica coffee tree. Coffee from the the Robusta coffee tree  is often considered lower quality than coffee from other species and so is used primarily in cheaper blends and in instant coffee. The upside of robusta coffee is that it has twice the caffeine of Arabica used in higher quality coffee! So you get more pop for the buck!

Biggest thing alive

Sequoiadendron giganteum
(Giant sequoia)

The giant sequoia is the largest single organism in the world. While colonies of coral or stands of Aspen trees (that have a common root system) could be considered larger, no singular organism bests the might sequoia. The largest sequia on record was longer than a football field (almost 311 feet), and was over 56 feet in diameter. The bark surrounding a giant sequoia can be up to 3 feet thick.  For such a huge tree, its roots are surprisingly shallow, boring down only about 13 feet into the ground. But they do spread out wide: roots from on tree can fill an acre of land. These roots have to suck up huge amounts of water as sequoia trees transpire (a tree version of sweating) over 500 gallons of water a day.

"I'll take 15 coffee trees please."

Coffea arabica trees in bloom

If you drink two cups of coffee a day, then somewhere in the world there are 15 coffee trees growing just to supply your annual fix! The Arabica coffee tree originated in Ethiopia, but was spread throughout east Africa and the Arabian peninsula. Its now cultivated all over the world as Arabian coffee is often considered higher quality than coffee from other species of the tree. An old Ethiopian legend has it that coffee was discovered after the locals noticed that goats tended to mount each other rather vigorously after eating the leaves and fruits of the coffee tree!

Guest Blog: Yuval Sapir - Mr. and Ms. Almond

Dr. Yuval Sapir is Director of the Tel Aviv University Botanical Gardens

Almond trees bloom in the midst of winter, exposed to rain and wind. This is also the same time of the year that has an almost complete lack of pollinators. So how do these trees make fruits?

Well, on rare sunny winter days, these trees are visited by large solitary Anthophora bees. Each bee can visit a single tree hundreds of times. But even with these visits of pollinators, only a tiny fraction (5 - 10%) of flowers set fruit, which seems like a huge waste of flowers. Why such a waste?

The answer is probably due to the difference between males and females (I'm talking about trees here, but the case could be made for humans as well). Males seek different paths of reproductive success than females. The male parts of the almond trees (which produce the pollen) benefit from each bee visit as more and more pollen is spread to other trees. The huge number of flowers is a very attractive advertisement for the bees to come get pollen. The larger the advertisement, the better chances of male success. The large cover of thousands flowers attracts many more bees that carry pollen away, which increases the chances of male success.

The female parts of the tree (which is the style and ovules), on the other hand, enjoys the privilege of "choosing" the best pollen grains and being picky. Only the most fit male will make it to the ovule and produce a fruit, otherwise an abortion will be its fate. So only a twentieth of flowers set fruits, but these will be the best kids for mom!

The tree of God's House

Cedar in Barouk Lebanon. source

This tall and strong conifer is the the national emblem of Lebanon and found throughout the mountains of Lebanon and northern Israel. The`cedar is mentioned through out the bible, such as in Psalm 92:12 - The righteous ... shall grow mighty like the cedar of Lebanon. King Solomon was so impressed with the beauty and strength of cedar wood that he imported huge amounts of cedars from the Phoenicians in Tyre to build the First Temple.

The wood in a tree trunk is actually old water vessels called xylem. Each year a tree makes new xylem tubes on the perimeter of the trunk, while the old ones are plugged up and serve to support the tree.

The Indian Date

Tamarindus indica (Tamarind)

The Tamarind tree is little known in the west, but common in Africa and Asia. It name comes from the Arabic and Hebrew words tamar , which means "date", and hind, which means "India". Its fruit can be eaten, turned into a drink, or used to flavor ice cream. Both its fruit and bark are used in traditional medicines and modern studies have shown that they contain chemicals that can work as anitibiotics. In Asian temples, the fruit pulp is used to polish brass Buddhas.

Yew and cancer

Taxus brevifolia (Pacific Yew)

The Pacific Yew is a conifer found primarily in the Pacific Northwest. Its thin scaly back would probably go unnoticed if not for the fact that it contains a chemical called paclitaxel, or more commonly known as the chemotherapy drug Taxol. Taxol was discovered in the mid 1960s as part of a large-scale program to identify natural products which might be used against cancer. In 1992 Taxol was approved by the FDA for use in fighting breast, ovarian and lung (and a few other) cancers. This is a prime example of how a deep knowledge of biodiversity can lead to incredibly important applications.

The tree with bloody bark

Arbutus andrachne (Eastern strwaberry tree)
Tel Aviv University Botanic Garden. source: Eytan Chamovitz  

This evergreen is found in countries bordering the Eastern Mediterranean. It has a distinctive bark that peals off and renews each year, turning from greenish brown for the new bark to a bright red in mature bark. This blood-red color has spurned many legends and in Arabic and Hebrew, the tree is called "killed father". The tree's fruit is edible. Arbutus was mentioned by Virgil, Horace and Ovid.

Umkokola - A smelly apple

Dovyalis caffra (Umkokola)

The Kei apple, or Umkokola, is native to southern and eastern Africa. This small tree yields an edible fruit, about the size of a crab apple. The little-known fruit is a traditional food in Africa and could be used to promote local food security issues. Umkokola fruits contain more vitamin C than an orange! But the fruit is rather smelly which has hindered its adoption as a crop.

Guest Blog: Paul Moore and the Mt. Atlas Pistachio

Paul Moore is a musician, traveling minstrel, founder of Ukuleles for Peace, and a lover of trees.

Paul Moore and a very old Pistacia atlantica (Mt. Atlas mastic)

Paul: I found this today while on a trip to look at stone for my house. This amazing Mount Atlas Pistache tree is next to Kibbutz Yiftah on the Northern Road of Israel. This could be the oldest one in the grove, or one like it, and is approximately 450yrs old. The most strange thing happened as I approached it: a Black cat jump out from the Center of the Tree... A witch's Tree no doubt! I am lucky to Live in a Forest in the Galilee Mountains in Mitzpa Harashim, We take our love of trees very seriously here! I hope to take pictures and tell more tree story's in the Future. The Galilee has an amazing amount of very old trees despite its size and the constant removal of trees over the centuries for fire, carpentry and more recently the railway. The Sacredness of some trees is still very much part of the inhabitants, be they Jew, Christian, Druze, or Muslim.

Danny: This species of pistachio is native from Iran to Turkey, through the Middle East to North Africa. It has many uses: The seeds can be eaten raw or turned into candy, the seeds also provide a useful oil, the plant contains a rubber that is used as a natural chewing gum, its sap is used to make incense and perfume, and the leaves contain chemicals used for tanning leather. The Mt. Atlas tree is dioecious, meaning that there are separate male and female trees.