Pokin Around: Botanist debunks one theory about how a car came to be 15 feet up in a tree
Steve PokinRiddle me this, says botanist Turner Collins:
If you hung a horseshoe on a tree limb 6 feet above the ground when you were a child, and came back years later as an adult, how far would the horseshoe be from the ground?
The answer is 6 feet — assuming there has been no soil erosion.
Collins was responding to my Sunday Pokin Around column about how the remnants of what is believed to be a Model A Ford got to be 15 feet up in a tree near McDaniel Lake.
One theory is that some 70 years ago the driver was barreling down a nearby hill and the car became airborne.
Another theory mentioned in the story is that there was an explosion at a gas station that was once behind the tree and up a hill and a car part went flying and descended into the tree limbs.
And the third theory — the one Collins just debunked — is that the car hit the tree at a much lower height and over 70 years it was lifted, as the tree grew, to its current perch 15 feet off the ground.
Collins wrote me:
"I grew up on a farm, had lots of contact with trees (another story) and wound up studying agriculture and then becoming a professional botanist for over 50 years, 33 at Evangel University.
"... Trees, as well as all plants, grow from the tip (apex). Lots of technical ways to explain this, but it is basically because plant cell walls are made of 'inelastic' cellulose.
"Once a plant cell matures it is fixed in size, and cannot divide or produce more growth. The only plant tissue that can produce more tissue is at the tip of the stem, thus growth is always at the apex.
"This of course means that branches do not move up the tree with time. Although lower branches do die and drop off, leaving the impression that branches have moved up the tree. It is a common misconception that things move up the trunk of a tree as it grows, but not so.
"I do not know how the car got into the tree, but I can assure you that it became airborne by some means to wind up in the forks of the tree.
"The tree must have been fairly large at the time to receive and hold even part of a Model A Ford. And, the remaining portion of the car is exactly where it landed all those years ago.
"This is your botany lesson for this week."
The tree is just off the roadway at the intersection of North Farm Road 151 and West Farm Road 76. The intersection is east of the bridge (closed to traffic) that spans McDaniel Lake.
All that remains of the car is a small hunk of rusted metal not much different in color than the big, thick and very dead tree.
Decades ago, there was more up there — including a radiator and a fender.
Thanks for today's lesson, Turner.
These are the views of News-Leader columnist Steve Pokin, who has been at the paper seven years, and over his career has covered everything from courts and cops to features and fitness. He can be reached at 417-836-1253, spokin@gannett.com, on Twitter @stevepokinNL or by mail at 651 Boonville Ave., Springfield, MO 65806.