Cool Tree Facts: May 2015

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Shade Trees and Parking Lots

US Forest Service studies have shown that parking your vehicle under a shade tree can reduce interior vehicle temperatures as much as 45 degrees. An important fact to know now that summer is fast approaching. More Cool Tree Facts www.ArundelTreeService.com

Image Citation: Mary Ann Hansen, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Bugwood.org

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Do Trees and Plants have DNA?

Have your children ever asked you the tricky question: Do trees and plants have DNA too?

Do you know the answer to that?

The answer is YES! All plants, including trees, have DNA. There are quite a few life forms that don't have DNA, but they are mainly viruses and are much too small to see. All known cellular life forms, including bacteria, use DNA in one form or another. The basic form/shape of all DNA plant or human is the same (double helix). The code or sequence of our DNA is what makes each of us unique plant or human! Many studies have found that we share between 50-60 % of our DNA with the Banana Plant, which would make sense since many of us are a bit bananas sometimes :-)

Researchers have found that in some cases a plant or trees DNA may be even longer then a humans. One study found that the DNA from a Norway Spruce is made up of 20 billion base pairs, that is about seven time the length of a human's DNA which is made up of just 3 billion base pairs.