Here is the first tree for #treetuesday. This is a mesquite tree that is on the edge of a river bank slowly getting its earth eroded from underneath it.
Check out these crazy roots. Mesquites are a desert tree that need to put down really deep roots to find ground water.
Here is this one's main taproot, they can put taproots down to 200 feet to find water. This one's taproot appears to have been cracked midway because of the river bank erosion.
Quite a few mesquites are getting eroded along the river bank. Every now and then this river will actually fill up to the height of these 15 foot banks and next time it does these trees will most likely be swept away.
Here is a similar tree to the mesquite called a cat claw tree. They are just the runt version of a mesquite tree with similar features including sharp thorns, they just tend to be smaller than mesquite.
Here is a non-native tree found in Arizona called a cotton wood. They were planted here a few years ago and they grow fast and large then die quickly.
They do well next to the river but once they die the branches high up above can be dangerous as the wind will crack their soft fibrous wood easily.
Now for a little wild bonsai up in the Chiricahua mountains. Can you see the tiny little guy up on the left?
I zoomed in with my lens to get a better look at the little bonsai. You can see its roots go down into the rocky crevice where it probably gets sustained by dust that gets blown in there and some morning dew and frost. I wonder how old it is, maybe its been there for years. It looks to be some kind of evergreen tree.
That's all for now, thanks for looking :-) happy #treetuesday
