I had several comments on my Facebook page about how to caption the tree photo I posted here a couple of days ago. If I was guessing what was going on, I might have said, “Tree Hugging 101 class”. Here are captions from Facebook:
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“Black Legged Sap Sucker – very rare, and that’s for sure”.
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Lady sniffing tree. “Yes Harry, this is the tree that farted”
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“Stand back, hide behind a tree and maybe the grizzly bear and the black legged sap sucker won’t notice us”.
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“My first boyfriend wrote our initials on one of these trees”.
The thing that was really happening in the photo was that a volunteer naturalist at the High Desert Museum was leading a walk and he had people smelling the Ponderosa pine’s bark. It has a sweet cinnamon-like smell.
Here’s a link to an article that talks more about the tree and its unique scent. Ponderosa pines sweet smell.
Hahah – I love the “lady sniffing tree” comment. That’s funny that they smelled like cinnamon. I’ll have to remember to stop and smell the trees more often.