[Aquinasfan]

Although summers have been colder over the past 10,000 years, these trees have survived harsh weather conditions due to their ability to push out another trunk as the other one died.

What fascinates me about trees is their ability to act as a coherent whole, rather than as an agglomeration of discrete parts. Trees lack a brain or control system comparable to a nervous system in mammals. So what drives the "ability to push out another trunk as the other one died"?

I've also noticed an interesting phenomenon in trees when a new house lot is carved out of the woods. A tree that was formerly surrounded by other trees is left standing alone. Over the course of several years the tree's upper branches will die off, while the tree shoots out lower branches. It takes less energy to pump water half-way up the tree, so this phenomena makes sense for the health of the tree as a whole. But how does this mechanism work? How do scientists explain this phenomenon?

These phenomena seem to me to be evidence of the vegatative form or " vegatative soul."

[Red Badger]

God made the tree. He programmed the DNA sequence. It works. I do not question how or why.

Pruning the lower limbs of trees, lower than about 6 feet, will stimulate new growth at the top and bush out the sides.............

[ThePythonicCow]

But how does this mechanism work?

Just guessing here, but perhaps (1) the lower branches shoot out, because they can ... thanks to being able to see light where they couldn't before, and then (2) the higher branches die off, because they are getting less nutrition from the roots than before ... thanks to the lower branches stealing it.