Dendro by Laura

Dendro by Laura - April 2019 Scholarship Essay

The wind whipped through the forest stand where I stood. The subsequent shuffling of papers flapping against clipboards hushed the constant drone of crunching leaves my classmates made as we circled around the quiz tree. Some students were scouring the ground in search of remnant acorn tops or fallen branches to observe the buds protruding from the tip. I moved towards the trunk going back for a second look at the bark. I had already noted the pointed lobe leaf shape, alternate branching, and clustered buds. It had to be either a black or red oak. I could hear my professor’s voice in my head, “ski-track bark three-quarters down the tree is characteristic of a red oak.” The bark of this tree furrowed in lines like ski tracks caressing down the trunk to about hip height. I committed to the red oak. My hands shook, partially from the numbing force of the wind and partially from nerves wishing I could verify my answer while I scribbled “Fagaceae Quercus rubra.” I reviewed the pieces of evidence in my head over and over again; bark, buds, leaves, branching. They checked out. I turned to face my professor, to face the truth. He took my clipboard checking my English and Latin spelling and identification for the quiz tree. I held my breath as that satisfying +6 joined my answer on the page. It was a red oak.

It wasn’t always a +6 on my quiz sheets. Dendrology Lab was unlike any other class I had ever taken. It was humbling, one of the hardest classes, despite its one credit hour value, and a true test of stamina in a variety of ways. Every class was an outdoor, comprehensive, three-hour exam in snow, wind, rain, or shine. While in the woods, our professor would teach us how to identify 10-15 new trees each week with intermittent “quiz trees” to test our knowledge on weeks previous. The expectation was to learn how to identify and memorize over 150 tree species in English and Latin.

At the beginning of the semester, I didn’t know how to organize my materials or best sort the plethora of new information presented every week. I decided to create a book to centralize my notes. After every class, I would transcribe my notes by pasting drawings, writing abbreviated identifying hints, collecting leaves, twigs, and other parts of trees to keep track of the 10+ trees introduced each week. My book came with me everywhere as I would practice wherever I went. Walking across campus, even while riding the bus, I would look out the window to identity the trees around me. While preparing for the final, I was amazed at how the constant repetition, studying, and testing myself led to my ability to flip through the book spouting Latin names as though it was my common tongue.

My hand-crafted book was the physical demonstration of all that I had learned, but Dendrology Lab taught me to look beyond what I saw right in front of me. Every imperfection, exception, and difference taught me not to conclude based on a mere glimpse, but to strip a tree apart, observing every possible identifying factor down to the taste of the leaf or the color of the pith inside the twig. This new found attention to detail and repetitive study tactic helped me be successful in a variety of ways as I learned how to effectively memorize new information. To this day, my identification book and knowledge of 150 tree species is one of my proudest accomplishments.