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 28 ground-level canopy DHJanzen100339.jpg high resolution
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| A close view of the short-grass prarie in image DHJanzen100338.jpg above. This is like looking down from 1000 m on an oak tree crown. The disorderly array of silvery gray leaves are not seedlings, or trash, but in fact the crown of a (many decades) old perennial angiosperm, effectively an underground tree (see image DHJanzen100340.jpg below). Growing this way, its woody tissues are largely storage organs and are protected from both browsing/grazing large herbivores and desiccation during the dry winters with their strong winds (and often, lack of snow cover). | ||
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