BCI 2 - Finding Function in Nature

Saturday, Jan 28th 2023 - Kelsey Round Lake, Andover MN

I ventured once again out to Kelsey Round Lake. It was a cold day at 10 degrees with overcast. It was too cold for me to want to sit, so I once again walked around the park to keep myself warm with the occasional stop to stand and reflect.

I spent this walk focusing on my curiosity on tree design. On my previous walk, I noticed that certain tree species had a different growing pattern for their trunk and branches. Why do they grow like that? Is to grow in open space? Does the pattern change the amount of light reaching the leaves to achieve their desired lighting?

Through exploring Ask Nature, I found that trees can withstand external stresses through load-adaptive growth. It was fascinating to learn that at the trees distributes mechanical tension through the efficient use of their trunk material and adaptive structural design. Trees will add wood to points of greatest mechanical load. At the scale of the cell, trees will arrange their fibers to match the flow of stress to minimize shear stress. It was mentioned that engineers use this weight bearing technique to optimize weight and performance in fiber-composite materials.

My hypothesis is that specific trees grow in certain patterns based on their wood fiber type to withstand their environmental stress as well as supporting their goal to get more sunlight for their leaves while keeping space from other plants.

While I was walking and listening to the trees, I also considered all types of functions a singular tree utilizes. I thought about the physical aspects, like their bark, roots, leaves, and fruit. I also thought about how trees interacted with other species, like through mycelium, pollination, and planting seeds. Another perspective of function is through their design, like the pattern of growth and the design of their leaves.

A tree provides a lot of information to help design solutions. Ask Nature has various design solutions inspired by trees. I’m curious and excited to learn more from trees(-: