Trees Grade 8 What are trees Trees play

Trees Grade 8

What are trees? • Trees play a vital role in keeping our atmosphere in balance with nature. So, the tree is a living organism which belong to the plant kingdom. It is made up of millions of cells which combine to form structures such as the roots , trunk, branches , stem leaves and even fruits.

What are trees? • A tree may take between 30 and 100 years to reach the stage when it is regarded as being suitable for felling type of tree- this will vary according to the type of tree and its growing conditions.

Types of trees Trees general belong to one of the two basic groups. The groups are: • Deciduous trees • Coniferous trees

What are Coniferous trees? • Coniferous trees have narrow leaves often called needles. They are generally evergreen and the seed are carried in cones. The Coniferous trees provided the timber which is classified as softwood.

Pictures of coniferous trees

What are Deciduous trees? • Deciduous trees have broad leaves which they generally shed during winter. Deciduous trees generally grow much slowly than coniferous trees. The timber from this type of tree is hardwood.

Pictures of Deciduous trees

Shapes of trees If we look around the school, our homes, we should see that the tree’s overall shape will take forms similar to each other. There are three shapes of trees • General tree shape • Open grown tree • Forest grown tree

General tree shape

Open grown tree

Forest grown trees

Picture of the tree parts

Tree main parts

Tree parts Every tree have three things in common ; that is to say they all have • Root systems • A trunk • A crown The most important of these is the trunk but we need to understand how the root system and crown operate.

Tree main parts- roots • Roots have two main functions ; they are to anchor the tree to the ground and to extract water and minerals from the ground.

The roots

Tree main parts- crown • Crown is made up of branches , twigs and foliage- under which both man and animals have often sought shelter from rain or shade from the sunlight. This is the area where food for the tree is processed

The crown

Tree parts-trunk • The trunk is the main stem of the tree from which timber is cut. Once the trunk is cut into lengths these may be called logs or boules.

The trunk

summary

Class work 1. Describe the following • Coniferious trees • Deciduous trees 2. Name three parts of the tree and state their function 3. What are foliage? 4. Why are trees important to nature? 5. Define the term felling