I dare you to google these different species to see them. They are pretty fascinating. There are so many wonderful, interesting things on planet Earth. I have referenced the parks below for some of these places in case you ever get the chance to go see them.
Have you had a chance to do some traveling? If you have, you’ve likely seen some things on our planet that are quite marvelous. Some even unexplainable. If you haven’t been able to travel, I expect you’ve studied different places and things in school or seen plenty of photos – on your computer and television resting screens, if nothing else. And there are some amazing things on this planet!
One of my favorites for interesting is the Joshua Tree. Strung along in the Mojave Desert, which is so large it spans four states (Southeast California, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah) and is just a little smaller than the state of Rhode Island, they are a source of protection and life for the desert which borders the stark, but gorgeous Colorado Desert. Joshua trees don’t have the typical rings that allow us to count their age. Instead, their ages are roughly estimated by growth rates of one-half inch to three inches per year. A Joshua tree isn’t considered mature until it is 60 years of age, and they can live for hundreds of years; some specimens have survived a thousand years. The root system is extensive, reaching down to 11 m (36 ft), and the above ground tree can reach heights of about 15 m (49 ft), though they are generally 15 to 40 feet high with a narrow diameter of between 1 and 3 feet. Joshua trees reseed, with the help of the yucca moth, but can also shoot out new stems from underground rhizomes (roots that grow back up out of the ground). They only grow in higher climates between 1,300 to 5,900 feet, thus they won’t settle in the lower Colorado desert.
What’s primarily interesting to me about the Joshua trees is that they only grow in this one area of Southwest United States. How can that be? There are other, very interesting trees that also live in only one place on the planet, such as the dragon’s blood trees found on the Yemeni archipelago of Socotra in the Indian Ocean. Their name comes from the red sap they produce. Because of the island’s separation from the mainland about 20 million years ago, unique flora has been allowed to continue to grow there. According to National Geographic, “37 percent of the island’s 825 plant species are found nowhere else in the world.”
There are others as well: the giant baobabs in Madagascar (google the “Avenue of Baobabs,”) which reach heights of nearly 100 feet and can live to more than a thousand years. The California Sequoias are the largest trees in the world by volume, with “General Sherman” being the largest tree on Earth (by trunk volume). Sequoias can reach the age of 3,400 years old. Also in California are the tallest trees in the world, California’s coastal redwoods. California’s coast redwoods can reach a height of 367 feet and a base width of 22 feet. And last but not least, found only in California, Utah, and Nevada, the Great Basin bristlecone pine. They are the oldest non-clonal species on the planet, because they are exceptionally resistant to harsh climates and growing conditions. They grow so unbelievably slowly that they can stave off insects, fungi, rot, and erosion, allowing for the long lifespan. Some live over 5,000 years. Wow.
Then (I’ll only mention a couple of them) there are the rather fascinating animals that are one of a kind living in only one place on the planet, including Australia’s thorny devil lizard, which has a scary appearance, but is quite harmless. It drinks water, not through absorption, but through its skin by capillary action. When a thorny devil puts its foot in a puddle, a network of channels in the scales takes the water to its mouth like teeny straws. Then there’s the tiny, rough-textured pebble toads who live only in the highlands of Venezuela. They escape predators by rolling into a ball and hurling themselves downhill, bouncing and rolling like a loose stone.
There are even a few marine life rarities that live in only in one place, including the strange amphibian, the Texas blind salamander, Eurycea rathbuni. They live only in the continuous dark of water-filled caves connected to the Edwards Aquifer in Hays County, Texas. They have no eyes or skin pigment and frond-like external gills jut out from their neck. They are skilled predators, however, despite their lack of vision by sensing pressure waves while hunting small snails and shrimp.
These are a mere smattering of the crazy, wonderful places, vegetation, and creatures on our planet. Those resting screens I mentioned at the beginning of the blog? I love them. I get to see a new place every time I turn on my computer. Sometimes I can’t help myself and I have to click on the "look further into it" option. Maybe we can’t afford to travel, or our bodies can’t handle it, or the timing for it hasn't come yet, or we’re just too busy with work or children or parents or life in general, but thanks to the hard work of the people who constantly put information in places we can search, we can still experience some pretty amazing things.
[For those of you who are curious as to where the Joshua Trees got their name: the first people to use the name were Mormon immigrants from the 19th century. They were traveling through the region, and they noticed the unique looking tree. One version says they saw how the branches of the tree seemed to be pointing toward the sky, and they believed the limbs were pointing in the direction of the Promised Land. That made them associate the trees with the Prophet Joshua and named the tree after him. Another version says that these Mormon pioneers named the tree after the biblical figure after seeing the limbs of the tree “outstretched in supplication”, guiding the travelers westward. Although the image of the Promised Land, which was in the Biblical era's Middle East that Joshua entered into after the Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years, makes sense, the westward version might seem more logical since they were in southwest USA. Then again, the pioneers were all looking for their own Promised Land, so maybe that version is even more realistic as a metaphor.]
Parks
Joshua Tree - Joshua Tree National Park, east of Los Angeles and San Bernardino, CA
The Sequoias - Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks in California, home to 8,000
sequoias
California’s coastal redwoods - Redwood National Park, Muir Woods National Monument,
and Calaveras Big Trees State Park
Great Basin bristlecone pine - Great Basin National Park
The start of the Colorado Desert
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