Drink Deep from the Well of Knowledge

This information is from wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_worm.

Earthworms eat undecayed leaves and other plant matter. After it’s gone through processes in the worm’s stomach, it comes out as rich organic matter that is great for the garden.

And now for the juicy stuff. Earth worms have sex! Who knew? They are monoecious, which means they have both eggs and sperm on them. They have sex by laying on top of each other and exchanging sperm, which they store. Later on, when they’re all relaxed and smoking a cigarette (ha, just kidding), they form a cocoon and insert their own egg and the sperm they got from their “friend” into the cocoon, and then back out of it. At some point later, small but fully formed little worms emerge (though without their sexual parts, which come later – you know, at worm puberty, when they get crabby and irritable).

They can also regenerate, which is good news, since I’m pretty sure I’ve severed many an earthworm’s back side while hoeing the garden. That assuages a lot of guilt. Whew!

Here in Maine, the trees are leafing out… even the oaks are halfway to green. It’s a great time of year to get out exploring and find some new trees to put on the National Register of Big Trees. They take nominations…

Last year, me, my husband, and sister, went out to find Herbie, the biggest living elm tree in New England. Located in Yarmouth, Maine, it’s a short 30 minute drive from home. I expected Herbie to be on the main drag in Yarmouth, and it took quite a bit of driving around, getting lost, and even giving up, before we actually found Herbie. We were discouraged and trying to find our way out of a Yarmouth neighborhood to go home when we all sort of had the same realization at the same time “wow, that’s a big tree.”

Herbie is inconspicuously located in a regular neighborhood in someone’s yard. A plaque marks its girth and age. Herbie survived the Dutch Elm epidemic that wiped out a good portion of the nation’s elm trees in the 20th century.

In America, the “land of big,” big trees are somewhat of a rarity. We’re used to seeing big buildings, big spaces, big plates, and big people..but one trip to Europe can convince you that our trees are downright puny. The big trees that we do have are majestic, inspiring, historical, and rare. They remind you that not everything is new in this young country. Some trees predate white people by hundreds of years.

So now that I’ve seen Herbie, my next trip is the giant redwoods in California.

What big trees are in your neighborhood? In your state?