The bark of many pines and firs is scale-like, characterized by loonie-sized discs or plates that cover a tree. As these ...

Every garden is a thing of beauty in the growing seasons — spring bulbs, summer flowers and fall foliage all carry on with extravagance. But winter is coming, so the colorful garden superstars will ...

The center of a tree or shrub stem (from roots to trunk, branches, and twigs) is woody, composed of xylem cells that conduct water from the roots to the upper parts of the tree. That woody section is ...

Training one’s eye to identify trees is a fun way to connect with the world around us and can be useful for making home landscape selections. Trees are often identified using leaf shape and color, ...

Here it is, the season of same-old-same-old: same old freezing rain, same old snow, same old chill winds, gray skies and barren, shivering timbers. In most parts of the country, it is the season of ...

In Uganda, designers are trying to revive interest in a cloth people there have been wearing for the past 600 or more years. “Bark cloth” is made from just that, the inner bark of the mutuba tree — a ...

Mary Jo DiLonardo has worked in print, online, and broadcast journalism for 25 years and covers nature, health, science, and animals. Young trees sometimes have smooth bark that's unbroken by ridges.