The balance between cooperation and competition: cooperative communication between humans

In the chapter You have gestures of her book The First Word, Christine Kenneally's first virtual world —language—is turning visual. She writes about Mike Tomasello and his associates of the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany, who did observe and compile a huge collection of ape gestures; including monkey, gibbon, gorilla, chimpanzee, bonobo, and orangutan gestures, many of them studied at the Leipzig city zoo.

What about human gestures? To study human gestures, you don't need to visit a zoo. Walk through Leipzig or any other city in the world and watch humans. The interesting aspect of human and animal gesture is that our gestures may have evolved intricately together with early language and communication capabilities. Humans—during their years as children—learn to interact and get each others attention by communicating in various ways such as pointing, imitating and making diverse sounds. Besides offering food and presents, we like to offer information and experiences. We compete and cooperate in a reciprocate fashion:    

Reciprocation is fundamental to the interaction of our species. Offering is not instinctive for humans, but is taught by parents to children, who learn it very easily.

Christine Kenneally, 2007.

Reference and more to explore
Christine Kenneally: The First Word. Viking Penguin, New York, 2007; pages123 and 128.

Technological evolution shadowing the evolution of human language

Language is the real information highway, the first virtual world. Language is the worldwide web, and everyone is logged on.

Christine Kenneally, 2007.

Reference and more to explore
Christine Kenneally: The First Word. Viking Penguin, New York, 2007; page 3.

Thinking about fundamental questions: the madman theory of education

Someone once introduced me to the madman theory of education. It says it is good for a university to have a faculty member who is mad because opposition to his crazy opinions stimulates students into thinking seriously about fundamental questions. Adler was the University of Chicago's madman.

Martin Gardner, before 2013.

Who is the madman at your university? Adler, by the way, is Mortimer Adler, who initiated the Great Books movement at the University of Chicago in Illinois, along with Robert Hutchins and Richard Peter McKeon (see Understanding something about science). Mathematics and science writer Martin Gardner (1914-2010)—in his posthumously published autobiography—has a lot to say about those three controversial and interesting characters.

Reference
Martin Gardner with Persi Diaconis and James Rand: Undiluted Hocus-Pocus. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 2013; page(s) 70±.

Understanding something about science: how to approach a domain of interest

To understand something about science the best plan is to read a short history of science, and popular works on relativity and quantum mechanics.

Martin Gardner, before 2013.

Mathematics and science writer Martin Gardner (1914-2010) suggested this “strategy” in his autobiography, introduced with a foreword by statistician Persi Diaconis (see Diaconis' blurb). Gardner wrote this while discussing the Great Books movement initiated by Robert Hutchins, Mortimer Adler and Richard Peter McKeon at the University of Chicago in Illinois. The idea of the Great Books scheme was that a list of preselected, original books—classics of Western culture and breakthrough literature—would be the best educational approach in advancing an academic career. Certainly, any such undertaking is culturally biased. In a world of fast, dynamically changing priorities and progress, learning goals are best achieved within (inter)disciplinary and community context: as outlined in the quotation, a targeted short history, scholarly overview or review will be most inspiring and introductory before diving deeper into the domain of interest. The detour through precursors and classics may then be taken at a later stage, when time frames allow in-depth studies and divergent curiosity.

Keywords: didactics, education, history.

Reference
Martin Gardner with Persi Diaconis and James Rand: Undiluted Hocus-Pocus. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 2013; page 50.

Disliking history classes, yet liking history

Like many of us, the popular mathematics and science writer Martin Gardner (1914-2010) disliked history the way the subject was (and often still is) taught in classes. But there are so many interesting facets of history. In his postumously published autobiography, Gardner points to the history of science and technology: 

The really important history, it seemed to me, was the history of science. Of all the vast changes in human life, most are the result of the steady progress of science and technology.

Martin Gardner, before 2013.

Let's add natural history (strongly overlapping with science), the history of languages and terminology, and the history of music, arts and crafts to further suggest that diving into history can be enlightening and personally empowering.

Reference
Martin Gardner with Persi Diaconis and James Rand: Undiluted Hocus-Pocus. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 2013; page 21.

Being an innocent youngster and a math professor at the same time

Martin Gardner's autobiography has posthumously been published [1,2]. Known for his Scientific American math column, Martin Gardner was fascinated by recreational mathematics, magic tricks and scientific research and he knew how to fascinate others. Persi Diaconis tells us that he wrote the following blurb for one of Gardner's books [2]:  

Warning: Martin Gardner has turned dozens of innocent youngsters into math professors and thousands of math professors into innocent youngsters.

Persi Diaconis, 2013.

Diaconis admits that he was one of those youngsters. Who else? I assume, the number of Gardner enthusiasts is growing exponentially.

Keywords: inspiration, recreation, magic, puzzle solving, mathematics.

References and more to explore
[1] David Singmaster: Master puzzler. Nature, September 19, 2013, 501 (7467), pp. 314-315. doi: 10.1038/501314a.
[2] Martin Gardner with Persi Diaconis and James Rand: Undiluted Hocus-Pocus. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 2013; page xvii.

Molecular chatterboxes: genes talking to genes

When genes became damaged or mutated, their hosting cells may turn malignant. Such cancerous cells can grow into tumors over time. Understanding of cancer, a group of diseases medically known as malignant neoplasm, relies on  the basic concept of uncontrolled, misregulated growth of cells into nearby parts of a patient's body. In addition to genetic changes, many other factors contribute to the biochemistry of malignancy, including body-occupying bacteria and the complex biomolecular interactions switching certain genes on and off. George Johnson summarize the new insight into the physics and informatics of cancer as follows: 

In the end, all biology comes down to genes talking to genes—within the cell or from cell to cell—in a constant molecular chatter. I had not considered, however, that the genes in human tissues can also exchange information with the genes residing in the microbes that occupy our bodies. Cancer is a disease of information, of mixed-up cellular signaling. Now there is another realm to explore.

George Johnson, 2013.

The new realm goes beyond the cell-centric mechanism of repeated mutation acquirement stimulating abnormal growth. A new paradigm that hopefully provides the needed insight to come forward with new treatments and advances in curing cancer.  

Keywords: cell biology, oncology, medicine, epigenetics, cancer treatment.

Reference
George Johnson: The long trail of cancer's. Scientific American, November 2013, 309 (5), 2012; pp. 60-63 [www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=book-excerpt-george-johnson-explores-the-latest-discoveries-about-cancer].

As well as we like: accurate(ly) versus efficient(ly)

Doing something well can mean to do it accurately or efficiently, or both. Julian Havil is asking the question how well an irrational number can be approximated by a rational number; and—within this context—he discusses the distinction between the adjectives accurate and efficient or, to be more accurate, the adverbs accurately and efficiently:

If by well we mean accurately, then the answer is as well as we like. It is intuitively clear that the accuracy of rational approximation can, in theory, be chosen to be what we will: there are plenty of rationals and as many as we could desire as close as we desire to our chosen number; consider the decimal expansion of the irrational number, truncated as we please. Yet, there is a hidden cost, as we shall see. Alternatively, if by well we mean efficiently the story is more complex since some numbers are more amenable to rational approximation than others - and from this relative compliance we can draw important distinctions [...]

Julian Havil, 2012.

Well done! 

Keywords: semantics, adjectives, adverbs, word disambiguation, approximation.

Reference
Julian Havil: The Irrationals. Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford, California, 2012; page154.

Elementary versus simple

Mathematics makes a nice distinction between the usually synonymous terms elementary and simple, with elementary taken to mean that not much mathematical knowledge is needed to read the material and simple to mean that not much mathematical ability is needed to understand it.

Julian Havil, 2012.

When the mathematically different meanings of these two adjectives collapse into one, the adjective complex makes for a suitable antonym. Julian Havil discusses the distinct meanings of the adjectives elementary and simple within mathematical context. He also provides an example in which their distinct meanings become difficult to grasp or where both words even regain identical meaning: the proof that ζ(3) is an irrational number, which has been achieved in quite different ways by (1) Roger Apéry, (2) Frits Beukers, (3) Wadim Zudilin, and others. An interesting, yet complex topic—even when illustrated in simple terms. 

Keywords: semantics, adjectives, antonym, word disambiguation.

Reference
Julian Havil: The Irrationals. Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford, California, 2012; pp. 152-153.

Named and unnamed mathematical constants: from anonymous to famous

Mathematical constants are either anonymous or famous, with fame a reflection of the constant's importance.

Julian Havil, 2012.

Along his compellingly illustrated path through the history of irrational numbers—delivering insights for mathematicians and non-mathematicians—Julian Havil introduces readers to interesting constants beyond the “famous constants” π and e [1]: the Conway Constant (also written Conway's Constant [2]), for instance, which isn't exactly famous. Neither is it anonymous, as it is named after the English mathematician John Horton Conway, who introduced and analyzed the look-and-say sequence leading to the discovery of the Conway Constant [3].

Anonymous constants may become famous. The Conway Constant and its look-and-say sequence should be of interest in the study of self-descriptive processes such as molecular self-replication; and, thus, will contribute to biomolecular modeling and advances in macromolecular chemistry and biochemistry [4].

Keywords: mathematics, special numbers, rationals, irrationals, transcendentals.

References and more to explore
[1] Julian Havil: The Irrationals. Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford, California, 2012; pages 136 and 137.
[2] Wolfram MathWorld: Conway's Constant [mathworld.wolfram.com/ConwaysConstant.html].
[3] John H. Conway: The Weird and Wonderful Chemistry of Audioactive Decay. Eureka 1986, 46, pp. 5-18 (see TOC on www.archim.org.uk/archives/eureka/#46).

by Óscar Martín

[4] Óscar Martín: Look-and-say biochemistry: Exponential RNA and Multistranded DNA. American Mathematical Monthly 2006, 113(4), pp. 289-307 [www.maa.org/publications/periodicals/american-mathematical-monthly/american-mathematical-monthly-april-2006].

Óscar Martín

by Ó Óscar Martín

One of the most attractive little villages anywhere in the American West: Genoa, Nevada

Genoa and peaks of the Carson Range seen from Discovery Trail

Genoa in Nevada is a small town that started as a settlement of Mormon pioneers in the 1850s and is today a charming community attracting both new residents and visitors from far and near. David W. Toll intimately describes this historic town as follows:

Genoa (pronounced Juh-NO-uh) IS THE OLDEST permanent settlement within the present state of Nevada, and one of the most attractive little villages anywhere in the American West. Established as a trading post in 1851 to serve the wagon trains as a resting place between the open desert and the granite barricade of the Sierra Nevada, Mormon Station (as it was called then) became a small farming center. It is now a gentrified enclave of the wealthy.

David W. Toll, 2002.

The Genoa Historic District attracts tourists. The surrounding river fork lands arouse bird watchers' interest. And the slopes and canyons of the Carson Range invite outdoor enthusiasts to challenge that granite barricade and its steep drop-offs. Old and young—wealthy or not—explore the scenic sites and tracks of the Genoa Trail System with a multitude of hiking, biking and horseback-riding options. Situated in the biologically-diverse Great Basin/Sierra Nevada transition zone in the Carson Valley, Genoa has a lot to offer to those who enjoy educational and recreational activities. The nearby River Fork Ranch and nature preserve provides interpretive sites and trails through ranch land. To see these plains and the mosaic of Genoa neighborhoods from a higher perspective, hiking and climbing the Genoa Waterfall Trail, Sierra Canyon Trail or Discovery Trail will do. Genoa: a little village with an expansive trail network.

Keywords: history, gentry, traveling, outdoors, recreation.

Reference
David W. Toll: The Complete Nevada Traveler. The Affectionate and Intimately Detailed Guidebook to the most Interesting State in America. Gold Hill Publishing Company, Inc., Virginia City, Nevada, 2002.

A geological wonderland: Lassen Volcanic National Park in northeastern California

California's Lassen Volcanic National Park is an easily accessible “Ring of Fire” hot spot rich in volcanic episodes. Visitors enjoy to explore this dramatic landscape. Volcanologists are dreaming of solving the intriguing puzzles that lie and evolve underneath its surface. Tim I. Purdy introduces Lassen Volcanic as follows [1]:

Lassen Volcanic National Park is a geological wonderland—home to four different types of volcanoes. While Lassen Peak is the most prominent feature in the park, it just happens to be the world's largest plug dome volcano. The peak gained notoriety with its eruptions of 1914-15.

The four different volcano types—to which Purdy refers—have to be the same types illustrated in the Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center and mentioned in the 20-minute park film The Story Behind the Landscape shown there and at the Loomis Museum auditorium: plug dome (like Lassen Peak), cinder cone, shield volcano and composite volcano (or strata dome or stratovolcano). These are the four main kinds into which geologists group volcanoes [2]. But there are other terms as well as type variations including cryptodome, mud volcano, supervolcano, submarine volcano and subglacial volcano.

A plug dome, generally named lava dome or volcanic dome, forms and evolves by the flow of highly viscous lava, like dacite, through its vent or veins. Typically the lava does not flow very far—otherwise it would build a gently sloping shield volcano. The viscous mass piles up, fills the volcano's crater, is cooling and solidifying around the rim or at the cone top, and grows a plugging dome by expansion from within the volcanic vent—hence its name. According to the park brochure, this is how Lassen Peak originated, since it started to take shape about 27,000 years ago as a volcanic vent on the northern flank of ancestral Brokeoff Volcano. The latter was a big composite volcano, which built up 400,000 to 600,000 years ago through countless eruptions until it broke down due to hydrothermal activity and weathering. 

Keywords: geology, volcanology, volcano classification, lava flow.

References and more to explore
[1] Tim I. Purdy: Lassen Volcanic. Lahontan Images, Susanville, California, 2009: Introduction.
[2] USGS: Principal Types of Volcanoes [pubs.usgs.gov/gip/volc/types.html].

Dotting the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada: nut pine (Pinus monophylla), an important food-tree

The nut pine (Pinus monophylla), commonly named singleleaf pinyon (also written single-leaf pinyon and singleleaf piñon), is a small evergreen tree with one to two inches long single needles (its name!)—rarely two or three needles in a fascicle. Trees grow up to a height of 40 feet, often with several twisted trunks, branching low and into a broad crown [1]. It is native to North America, having a distribution range from Idaho to Baja California [2]. John Muir mentioned its scattered occurrence along the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada, where it grows in “grayish, bush-like patches, from the margin of the sage-plain to an elevation of from 7000 to 8000 feet” [3]. Often mixed with junipers, the nut pine is a significant member of the pinyon-juniper woodland community.

The edible seeds of the nut pine—the pine nuts—have been collected as a diet by Native Americans for a long time. The nuts have a relatively high water content and a moderate fat content. Their nutritional value may be accessed by comparing percentages-by-weight content of water, protein, fat, fiber and carbohydrates for Pinus monophylla nuts with respective percentages for other pine nuts and acorns [4].

Back to John Muir, who described the cones with their seeds, so important to Native American tribes [3]:

The cones are green while growing, and are usually found over all the tree, forming quite a marked feature as seen against the bluish-gray foliage. They are quite small, only about two inches in length, and give no promise of edible nuts; bu when we come to open them, we find that about half the entire bulk of the cone is made up of sweet, nutritious seeds, the kernels of which are nearly as large as those of hazel-nuts.

This is undoubtedly the most important food-tree on the Sierra, and furnishes the Mono, Carson, and Walker River Indians with more and better nuts than all the other species taken together. It is the Indians' own tree, and many a white man have they killed for cutting it down. 

John Muir, 1894.

Keywords: conifers, Pinales, Pinaceae, ethnobotany, food source, natural history.

References and more to explore

[1] VirginiaTech, Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation: singleleaf pinyon [dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus2/factsheet.cfm?ID=667 ].
[2] The Gymnosperm Database: Pinus monophylla - Torrey et Frémont 1845 [www.conifers.org/pi/Pinus_monophylla.php].
[3] John Muir: The Mountains of California. The Century Company, New York, 1894. Note: see pages 154 to 156 in the Penguin Classics Book print of 1985 with an introduction by Edward Hoagland.
[4] Glenn J. Farris: A Reassessment of the Nutritional Value of Pinus monophylla. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropolgy 1980, 2 (1), pp. 132-136 [www.escholarship.org/uc/item/7t65h419#page-1].

Accompanying the dwarf pine in some Sierra locations: needle pine (Pinus aristata)

Pinus aristata tassel, Wilbur D. May Arboretum

Pinus aristata is currently grouped into the subgenus Ducampopinus (bristlecone pines, lacebark pines, pinyons), within the genus Pinus, based on cone, seed and leaf characters [1-3]: known under the common name Rocky Mountain bristlecone pine, Pinus aristata is closely related to the Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) and the foxtail pine (Pinus balfouriana) within the subsection Balfourianae (foxtail pines). These are mountain pines, growing at high elevation in the Rocky Mountains and Great Basin ranges. Pinus aristata's present distribution range includes the states of Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona [4,5].

Interestingly, John Muir writes about the occurrence of Pinus aristata, to which he refers with the common name needle pine, in the Sierra Nevada, California—restricted to the area of the Kings and Kern river headwaters in the southern portion of the range. Muir says that the needle pine forms extensive forests there, accompanying the dwarf pine in some of these high-altitude places near the limit of tree growth [6]:

It is first met at an elevation of between 9000 and 10,000 feet, and runs up to 11,000 without seeming to suffer greatly from the climate or the leanness of the soil. It is a much finer tree than the Dwarf Pine. Instead of growing in clumps and low, heathy mats, it manages in some way to maintain an erect position, and usually stands single. Wherever the young trees are at all sheltered, they grow up straight and arrowy, with delicately tapered bole, and ascending branches terminated with glossy bottle-brush tassels. 

John Muir, 1894.

The above picture shows a Pinus aristata tassel of a bristlecone pine tree planted and sheltered in the Wilbur D. May Arboretum and Botanical Garden in Reno, Washoe County, Nevada—with an elevation of about 4,500 feet (1,370 m) a high-desert location, but situated much lower than typical habitats of bristlecone trees.

Keywords: conifers, Pinales, Pinaceae, section Parrya, taxonomy, natural history.

References and more to explore

[1] Encyclopedia of Life: Ducampopinus [http://eol.org/pages/6066156/overview].
[2] ArunPrasat26: Pinus classification. Blogger, September 1, 2007 [pinusclassification126.blogspot.com/2007/09/pinus-classification.html].
[3] Tree Names: Pine Tree Species Names Classification of the Pinus Genus [www.treenames.net/ti/pinus/].
[4] USDA: Pinus aristata Engelm. [plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=PIAR].
[5] F. Craig Brunstein and David K. Yamaguchi: The Oldest Known Rocky Mountain Bristlecone Pines (Pinus aristata Engelm.). Arctic and Alpine Research, Aug 1992, 24 (3), pp. 253-256 [www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1551666?uid=3739824&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21102555148303].
[6] John Muir: The Mountains of California. The Century Company, New York, 1894. Note: see pages 152 to 154 in the Penguin Classics Book print of 1985 with an introduction by Edward Hoagland.

Sparsely scattered in the Sierra Nevada: white pine (Pinus flexilis)

The white pine (Pinus flexilis), like the dwarf pine, grows at high elevation, typically above 9,000 feet above the sea [1]. The name “white pine” also refers to a subgenus within the genus Pinus: subgenus Strobus, commonly named white pines or soft pines [2]. Therefore, Pinus flexilis is often called by the common name limber pine or by geographically enhanced terms such as Rocky Mountain white pine [3]. The latter name hints at its main distribution range—the Rocky Mountains from Canada to Mexico. Pinus flexilis is also found in the Great Basin and the eastern Sierra Nevada [1]:

This species is widely distributed throughout the Rocky Mountains, and over all the higher of the many ranges of the Great Basin, between the Wahsatch Mountains and the Sierra, where it is known as White Pine. In the Sierra it is sparsely scattered along the eastern flank, from Bloody Cañon southward nearly to the extremity of the range, opposite the village of Lone Pine, nowhere forming any appreciable portion of the general forest. From its peculiar position, in loose, straggling parties, it seems to have been derived from the Basin ranges to the eastward, where it is abundant.

John Muir, 1894.

Note: Now spelled “Wasatch,” the spelling “Wahsatch” was used during John Muir's time. See, for example, the title “Salt Lake City and Wahsatch Mountains” of a book published in 1869 [4].

Keywords: conifers, Pinales, Pinaceae, scientific classification, natural history.

References and more to explore

[1] John Muir: The Mountains of California. The Century Company, New York, 1894. Note: see page 152  in the Penguin Classics Book print of 1985 with an introduction by Edward Hoagland.
[2] The Gymnosperm Database: Pinus [www.conifers.org/pi/Pinus.php].
[3] The Gymnosperm Database: Pinus flexilis [www.conifers.org/pi/Pinus_flexilis.php].
[4] Salt Lake City and Wahsatch Mountains [www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004680326/].

Creeping at high altitude: dwarf pine (Pinus albicaulis)

The dwarf pine (Pinus albicaulis) occurs at high elevation— together with the tamarack pine (Pinus contorta) up to a height of 9,500 feet—and often by itself up to 12,000 feet. This pine, also named whitebark pine, is a key species and vital evergreen of high-altitude forest communities of western North America [1]. The extreme, almost alpine conditions, under which trees survive in those exposed locations, find their expression in the bowing, asymmetric or contorted tree sculptures; illustrated by the hemlock spruce (Tsuga mertensiana) and the Sierra juniper (Juniperus occidentalis). John Muir introduced the dwarf pine—found as a group of erect trees at lower elevation and as closer to the ground growing “dwarfs” at higher, frequently exposed sites—as follows [2]:

This species forms the extreme edge of the timber line throughout nearly the whole extent of the range on both flanks [of the Sierra Nevada]. It is first met growing in company with Pinus contorta, var. Murrayama, on the upper margin of the belt, as an erect tree from fifteen to thirty feet high and from one to two feet in thickness; thence it goes straggling up the flanks of the summit peaks, upon moraines or crumbling ledges, wherever it can obtain a foothold, to an elevation of from 10,000 to 12,000 feet, where it dwarfs to a mass of crumpled, prostrate branches, covered with slender, upright shoots, each tipped with a short, close-packed tassel of leaves.

John Muir, 1894.

Often occurring as krummholz, the dwarf pine is also called scrub pine or creeping pine. Small trees of this pine species served Muir as a sheltered campsite, where, during stormy nights, he “often camped snugly beneath the interlacing arches of this little pine. The needles, which have accumulated for centuries, make fine beds, a fact well known to other mountaineers, such as deer and wild sheep, who paw out oval hollows and lie beneath the larger trees in safe and comfortable concealment.” [2]

Keywords: conifers, Pinales, Pinaceae, natural history, Sierra Nevada.

References and more to explore

[1] Even Reed Larson: Status and Dynamics of Whitebark Pine (Pinus albicaulis Engelm.) Forests in Southwest Montana, Central Idaho, and Oregon, U.S.A. Dissertation, University of Minnesota, June 2009 [www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5341426.pdf].
[2] John Muir: The Mountains of California. The Century Company, New York, 1894. Note: see pages 149 to 152  in the Penguin Classics Book print of 1985 with an introduction by Edward Hoagland.

The most beautiful of all the California conifers: hemlock spruce (Tsuga pattoniana)

High-altitude trees typically are storm-beaten. The hemlock spruce, which may grow singly or in thickets above timberline at exposed ridge-tops, sometimes show a shrubby krummholz form—expressing its life history of cold and windy conditions. Beneath the zones of heavy wind-currents, taller specimen—from eighty to a hundred feet high and from two to four feet in diameter—are found [1]. John Muir introduced the hemlock spruce as follows [1]:

The Hemlock Spruce is the most singularly beautiful of all the California coniferæ. So slender is its axis at the top, that it bends over and droops like the stalk of a nodding lily.  The branches droop also, and divide into innumerable slender, waving sprays, which are arranged in a varied, eloquent harmony that is wholly indescribable. Its cones are purple, and hang free, in the form of little tassels two inches long from all the sprays from top to bottom. Though exquisitely delicate and feminine in expression, it grows best where the snow lies deepest, far up in the region of storms, at an elevation of from 9000 to 9500 feet, on frosty northern slopes; but it is capable of growing considerably higher, say 10,500 feet.

John Muir, 1894.

Muir includes a sketch of a nodding, storm-beaten hemlock spruce (forty-feet high, he writes) in his book.

The currently accepted scientific name for hemlock spruce is Tsuga mertensiana. Muir used Tsuga pattoniana, one of the synonymous binomials of interest in nomenclature history, which also include binomial combinations such as Pinus mertensiana, Pinus pattoniania, Hesperopeuce mertensiana and Hesperopeuce pattoniana [2]. Common-name synonyms are mountain hemlock, alpine hemlock and black hemlock. This species occurs in mountain ranges from Alaska to California including British Columbia's mountains, the Olympic Mountains in Washington, the Coast and Cascade Ranges of Oregon, the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains [3]. 

Keywords: conifers, Pinales, Pinaceae, scientific names, nomenclature, natural history, Sierra Nevada.

References and more to explore

[1] John Muir: The Mountains of California. The Century Company, New York, 1894. Note: see pages 146 to 149  in the Penguin Classics Book print of 1985 with an introduction by Edward Hoagland.
[2] The Gymnosperm Database: Tsuga mertensiana [www.conifers.org/pi/Tsuga_mertensiana.php].
[3] USDA Forest Service: SPECIES: Tsuga mertensiana [www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/tsumer/all.html].

A rock tree, occupying the baldest domes and pavements: red cedar (Juniperus occidentalis)

Westerm junipers near Noble Lake along Pacific Crest Trail, Alpine County, California

Western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis) is found at high altitude in the Sierra Nevada: the shown trees (notice a second one in the background) grows on rock outcrops at the upper Noble Canyon, near Noble Lake along the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) between Ebbett's Pass and the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness [1]. This area includes the headwaters of the East Fork of the Carson River. John Muir wrote about western junipers, which he encountered in the moraine lands of the Carson tributaries. He called these trees—having a bright cinnamon-colored bark—red cedars [2]:

The Juniper is preëminently a rock tree, occupying the baldest domes and pavements, where there is scarcely a handful of soil, at a height of from 7000 to 9500 feet. In such situations the trunk is frequently over eight feet in diameter, and not much more in height. The top is almost always dead in old trees, and great stubborn limbs push out horizontally that are mostly broken and bare at the ends, but densely covered and embedded here and there with bossy mounds of gray foliage. Some are mere weathered stumps, as broad as long, decorated with a few leafy sprays, reminding one of the crumbling towers of some ancient castle scantily draped with ivy. Only upon the head waters of the Carson have I found this species established on good moraine soil.

John Muir, 1894.

The typically exposed, burly junipers of open alpine woods and rocky slopes suffer strong winds and avalanches. Yet, individual giants reach an estimated age of 2000 years and older [2,3].

Keywords: conifers, Pinales, Cupressaceae, natural history, Sierra Nevada.

References and notes

[1] Alex Wierbinski: Juniper, Noble Canyon, Carson-Iceberg Wilderness. Posted on November 15, 2011 [tahoetowhitney.org/content/juniper-noble-canyon-carson-iceberg-wilderness].
[2] John Muir: The Mountains of California. The Century Company, New York, 1894. Note: see pages 144 to 146  in the Penguin Classics Book print of 1985 with an introduction by Edward Hoagland.
[3] The University of Texas at Austin, Native Plant Database: Juniperus occidentalis Hook. [www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=JUOC].

King of the alpine woods: mountain pine (Pinus monticola)

The mountain pine or western white pine (Pinus monticola) is currently listed as “Near Threatened.” The overall population of this species—native to western North America (British Columbia, Alberta, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Nevada, California)—is probably decreasing due to logging, fire suppression, a lack of regeneration and pine blister rust [1]. In 1948, Donald Culross Peattie already mentioned the western white pine as a valuable timber tree fetching a higher price than the western red cedar or the Douglas fir when growing side by side with this species [2].

In the 19th century, when John Muir was exploring and describing the forests of the Sierra Nevada, the western mountain pine population was probably in healthier shape. Muir notes the mountain pine's close relation to the sugar pine (the sugar of which he calls the best of sweets) and glorifies its strength and noblesse with tones echoing his praise for Pinus lambertiana [3]:

The Mountain Pine is king of the alpine woods, brave, hardy, and long-lived, towering grandly above its companions, and becoming stronger and more imposing just where other species begin to crouch and disappear. At its best it is usually about ninety feet high and five or six in diameter, though a specimen is often met considerably larger than this. The trunk is as massive and as suggestive of enduring strength as that of an oak.

John Muir, 1894.

Muir also states that individual storm-proven trees may reach the grand old age of 1000 years [3].

Keywords: conifers, Pinales, Pinaceae, white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola), natural history, Sierra Nevada.

References and notes

[1] The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: Pinus monticola [www.iucnredlist.org/details/42383/0].
[2] Donald Culross Peattie: A Natural history of North American Trees. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York, 2007 (first Copyright by D. C. Peattie in 1948); pp. 37-45.
[3] John Muir: The Mountains of California. The Century Company, New York, 1894. Note: see pages 143 to 144  in the Penguin Classics Book print of 1985 with an introduction by Edward Hoagland.

A well-proportioned, rather handsome little pine: two-leaved, or tamarack pine (Pinus contorta, var. Murrayana)

John Muir (1838-1914) wrote enthusiastically about noble and giant trees—the giants of the Sierra Nevada's lower zones—such as the big tree, incense-cedar, Douglas spruce, sugar pine (and its nanómba), ponderosa pine and silver firs. But he also did justice to the smaller evergreens and dwarf trees. Pinus contorta subsp. murrayana, the tamarack or Sierra lodgepole pine, was described by him as “a well-proportioned, rather handsome little pine,” frequently occurring in the high-elevation, alpine forests [1]:

This species forms the bulk of the alpine forests, extending along the range, above the fir zone, up to a height of from 8000 to 9500 feet above the sea, growing in beatuiful order upon moraines that are scarcely changed as yet by post-glacial weathering. Compared with the giants of the the lower zones, this is a small tree, seldom attaining a height of a hundred feet. The largest specimen I ever measured was ninety feet in height, and a little over six in diameter four feet from the ground. The average height of mature trees throughout the entire belt is probably not far from fifty or sixty heet, with a diameter of two feet.

John Muir, 1894.

Keywords: conifers, Pinales, Pinaceae, tree size, natural history, Sierra Nevada.

References and more to explore

[1] John Muir: The Mountains of California. The Century Company, New York, 1894. Note: see pages 141 to 143  in the Penguin Classics Book print of 1985 with an introduction by Edward Hoagland.

King of all the conifers: Sequoia gigantea

John Muir (1838-1914) is known as a preservationist, who triggered the modern conservation movement at the end of the 19th century. His writings about nature inspire thinking in terms of biodiversity. His book The Mountains of California includes a chapter with the title The Forests, in which he puts down his observations about and around trees of California's Sierra Nevada. Muir had an obvious instinct for nobility, injecting a sound of arboretal racism into his texts, when he compared trees of the America's North West [1]:

Between the heavy pine and Silver Fir belts we find the Big Tree, the king of all the conifers in the world, “the noblest of a noble race.”

John Muir, 1894.

With “Silver Fir belt” he refers to the main forest belt of  “two noble firs,” the white silver fir and magnificent silver fir (Abies concolor and Abies magnifica, respectively).

Muir's noble “Big Tree” (Sequioa gigantea) of the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada is today known by scientific and common-name synonyms as well as spelling variations including Sequoiadendron giganteum, Wellingtonia gigantea, bigtree, giant sequoia, Sierran redwood and Sierra-redwood [2-4]. The currently accepted scientific name is Sequoiadendron giganteum (Lindl.) Buchholz [4].

Keywords: anthropocentrism, conifers, order Pinales, family Cupressaceae, subfamily Sequoioideae, natural history, taxonomy.

References and more to explore

[1] John Muir: The Mountains of California. The Century Company, New York, 1894. Note: see pages 128 to 141  in the Penguin Classics Book print of 1985 with an introduction by Edward Hoagland.
[2] The Gymnosperm Database: Sequoiadendron giganteum (Lindley) J. Buchholz 1939 [www.conifers.org/cu/Sequoiadendron.php].
[3] ARKIVE: Giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) [www.arkive.org/giant-sequoia/sequoiadendron-giganteum].
[4] USDA Forest Service Index of Species Information: Sequoiadendron giganteum [www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/seqgig/all.html].

Charmingly symmetrical evergreens: white silver fir and magnificent silver fir

In the book The Mountains of California John Muir (1838-1914) presents his observations of animals and plants of the Sierra Nevada, which he describes with factual details, but also with emotional attachment and anthropocentric expressions. In his narrative, trees are curious, brave, graceful, noble, magnificent, majestic, kingly beautiful, finely balanced or exquisitely harmonious. The white silver fir (Abies concolor) and the magnificent silver fir, or red fir (Abies magnifica) are charmingly symmetrical.

The white silver fir is charmingly symmetrical in its youth [1]:

We come now to the most regularly planted of all the main forest belts, composed almost exclusively of two noble firs—A. concolor and A. magnifica. It extends with no marked interruption for 450 miles, at an elevation of from 5000 to nearly 9000 feet above the sea. In its youth A. concolor is a charmingly symmetrical tree with branches regularly whorled in level collars around its whitish-gray axis, which terminates in a strong, hopeful shoot.

John Muir, 1894.

Muir then compares the magnificent silver fir with the white silver fir [1]:

This [A. magnifica] is the most charmingly symmetrical of all the giants of the Sierra woods, far surpassing its companion species in this respect, and easily distinguished from it by the purplish-red bark, which is also more closely furrowed than that of the white, and by its larger cones, more regularly whorled and fronded branches, and by its leaves, which are shorter, and grow all around the branchlets and point upward.

In size, these two Silver Firs are about equal, the magnifica perhaps a little the taller. Specimen from 200 to 250 feet high are not rare on well-ground moraine soil, at an elevation of from 7500 to 8500 feet above sea-level. The largest that I measured stands back three miles from the brink of the north wall of Yosemite Valley. Fifteen years ago it was 240 feet high, with a diameter of a little more than five feet. 

John Muir, 1894.

And it is worth to read on, since Muir charmingly writes about the wildflowers growing gloriously within and between the fir stands.

Keywords: anthropocentrism, adjectives, conifers, Pinaceae, natural history, nature, Sierra Nevada.

References and more to explore

[1] John Muir: The Mountains of California. The Century Company, New York, 1894. Note: see pages 122 to 128  in the Penguin Classics Book print of 1985 with an introduction by Edward Hoagland.

Another of the giants: the incense cedar (Libocedrus decurrens)

Naturalist and mountaineer John Muir (1838-1914) was fascinated with giant conifers rivaling Sequoia trees in stature and strength. In his book The Mountains of California he “praised” the Douglas spruce, ponderosa pine and sugar pine, including its sugar (“nanómba” in the Washoe language). Here is how Muir introduced another evergreen tree of western North American, the incense cedar (Calocedrus decurrens), for which he used the scientific synonym Libocedrus decurrens [1]:

The Incense Cedar is another of the giants quite generally distributed throughout this portion [Sierra Nevada] of the forests, without exclusively occupying any considerable area, or even making extensive groves. It ascends to about 5000 feet on the warmer hillsides, and reaches the climate most congenial to it at about from 3000 to 4000 feet, growing vigorously at this elevation on all kinds of soil, and in particular it is capable of enduring more moisture about its roots than any of its companions, excepting only the Sequoia.

John Muir, 1894.

Muir sketched an  incense cedar in its prime—standing straight, erect, with a columnar crown; although he mentioned that older trees often show irregular growth with large, elbowed branches growing parallel to the main trunk.
 
Calocedrus decurrens is as also known as California post cedar, white cedar and bastard cedar (see, for example, Incense cedar (Calocedrus decurrens) of David's Grove in Reno and the Calocedrus decurrens entry in the Gymnosperm Database) .

Keywords: conifers, Cupressaceae, natural history, incense cedar synonyms, Sierra Nevada.

References and more to explore

[1] John Muir: The Mountains of California. The Century Company, New York, 1894. Note: see pages 120 to 122  in the Penguin Classics Book print of 1985 with an introduction by Edward Hoagland.

The king of the spruces: Douglas spruce (Pseudotsuga douglasii)

Today the Douglas spruce is known worldwide as a timber-producing conifer. This evergreen tree is also used in landscaping and as a Christmas tree. Mature trees can be almost as tall as redwood trees. They definitely impressed the Scottish-born naturalist and mountaineer John Muir, when he explored the American Northwest during the 19th century [1]:

This tree is the king of the spruces, as the Sugar Pine is king of pines. It is by far the most majestic spruce I ever beheld in any forest, and one of the largest and longest lived of the giants that fluorish throughout the main pine belt, often attaining a height of nearly 200 feet, and a diameter of six and seven. Where the growth is not too close, the strong, spreading branches come more than halfway down the trunk, and these are hung with innumerable slender, swaying sprays, that are handsomely feathered with the short leaves which radiate at right angles all around them. This vigorous spruce is ever beautiful, welcoming the mountain winds and the snow as well as the mellow summer light, and maintaining its youthful freshness undiminished from century to century through a thousand storms.

John Muir, 1894.

The Douglas spruce was discovered—from a British-European viewpoint—by Archibald Menzies, a surgeon-naturalist from Scotland, who had joined George Vancouver on his voyage along the Pacific North West coast in 1792 [2,3]. Botanist David Douglas, another Scot, who years later came to the lands of the Columbia River, succeeded in sending home cones and seeds. Douglas called the tree by the scientific name Pinus taxifolia, which was later named Pseudotsuga douglassii in his honor by John Muir. Now, this species of the pine family is recognized scientifically as Pseudotsuga menziesii and by the common name Douglas fir— although Douglas pine would fit better. Whatever name, no adventuring Scotsman has been left behind.

Keywords: conifers, Pinaceae, natural history, nomenclature, western North America.

References and more to explore

[1] John Muir: The Mountains of California. The Century Company, New York, 1894. Note: see pages 119 to 120  in the Penguin Classics Book print of 1985 with an introduction by Edward Hoagland.
[2] Ann Lindsay Mitchell and Syd House: David Douglas, Explorer and Botanist.Aurum Press Ltd, London, Great Britain, 1999; pp. 51-52.
[3] John Muir and the Douglas fir of Washington [www.skagitriverjournal.com/Logging/Nat/Forest/Muir1-Fir.html].