|
|
Article: The time-warp trees of Comanche country. (Oklahoma sugar maples)
- Article from:
- American Forests
- Article date:
- July 1, 1990
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1990 American Forests. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
When university botanist Paul Buck takes core samples of sugar maple trees, there's a good chance his work might be interrupted by the buzzing posterior of a diamondback rattlesnake or the midsummer tantrum of a buffalo bull. Buck has done much of his research in the Wichita Mountains of southwest Oklahoma, a place that seems about as likely a home for maple trees as south Texas is for Eskimos.
The rugged granite Wichitas thrust up out of the prairie like some giant tumbledown tombstone. This federal wildlife refuge hosts a herd of about 800 buffalo, plus healthy populations of elk, deer, coyotes, collared lizards-and sugar maples, Acer saccharum, the same tree ...