The Leaf Detective Flashcards
She admired their different shapes, colors, and textures.
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How did they survive?
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How long did they live?
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Why did they die?
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But looking at leaves from the ground gets a rainforest scientist only so far.
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“We had already been to the moon and back and nobody had been to the top of a tree.”
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“It pained me if I was ever called upon in class”
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Instead, she found comfort and friendship and quiet excitement in plants.
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She built tree forts and collected twigs, leaves, and wildflowers to study and identify, to press and label, swamp thistle, devil’s paintbrush, forget-me-nots.
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“I was literally the only one in my town like myself”
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One professor refused to let her in his class, because she was a woman.
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Still she stuck like sap to her passion and followed it to graduate school and the tropical rainforests of Australia.
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No one at Sydney University had studied the rainforest before.
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In the dark, damp forest the trees rose up to distant rustling, squawks and screeches, shadows in the treetops.
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How could she get up there?
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From a metal rod, she welded a slingshot.
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Pull, aim, release, fire…
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Upside down, right-side up.
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The steamy forest painted her with a coat of sweat.
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Swinging and twisting, she dangled like a worm on a hook.
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“I was frozen with fear.”
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But she worried: What if the branch breaks? Will my sewing hold up? Will a bird peck through my rope?
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What sits waiting in the treetops?
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At last, splashed with flowers and sunlight - the canopy!
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The treetop swayed back and forth.
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Flies whizzed.
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Lizards lingered.
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A black weevil sucked leaf juices.
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Sweat bees landed on her arm for a lick of salt.
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And the jungle’s music danced all around her.
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“From then on, I never looked back…or down!”
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And leaves - lovely leaves!
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Large and small, shiny and prickly, tender and tough.
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To scientists it was a new frontier - mysterious and unexplored.
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They thought the rainforests were dark and gloomy and full of snakes.
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They wanted to cut them all down.
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“You can’t do this,” people said.
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“You are a woman.”
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“Woman don’t climb trees.”
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Rainforest mysteries called her to climb and discover.
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She climbed the red cedar, the Antarctic beech, the sassafras.
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She explored the stinging tree.
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It defended itself - its pincushion leaves tore at her skin, and chemical hairs injected poisons with a fiery sting!
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“(Trees) can’t run away from their enemies like animals can. So instead they have to make a lot of defenses…thorns…fuzzy leaves…toxins.”
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She monitored and traced them to find out how long they lived.
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Hour after hour, day after day, she worked alone in the treetops.
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“I found these times alone to be very strengthening. As they encouraged me to develop confidence in myself.”
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In the darkness, she crept into the forest.
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Noises swarmed around her - munching…crunching…chewing…
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“To my amazement and delight…most herbivores fed at night.”
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Ton insects, a tree is not just a tree, it is a “salad bar” - all-you-can-eat leaves.
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To birds and mammals, a tree is a buffet - juicy fruits and plump beetles, salamanders, and frogs.
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A tree is a sponge, soaking up water from the forest floor, and a recycler, giving water back to the clouds, ready to quench another day’s thirst.
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She had to find a better way.
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She brainstormed with other scientists.
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She thought and imagined… what if I fly up in a balloon?
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Or work from a edges of hillsides?
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Or train a monkey?
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Then one night, at one of her research sites, she and a friend had a brilliant idea - a trail through the treetops made with ladders instead of ropes.
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They sketched the plan on a napkin.
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Now she could research day and night, in good weather and stormy, alone and with others.
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Now Australian people wanted to visit their rainforest.
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She experimented with other ways to explore forest canopies.
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In Cameroon, Africa, she joined a team of scientists who launched a hot-air balloon that placed a raft on the treetops.
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She had never been there before.
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She wondered, What sits waiting on the treetops?
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The heat drained her energy, and she drained her water bottles.
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“The climb seemed never ending.”
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Spread out before her as far as she could see: trees, trees, beautiful trees, millions of years in the making, filled with life, giving life.
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But it struck her: What good is my research for the trees, for the animals, for people, When the chainsaws are coming?
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“If we do not conserve rain forests. All of our data will reference extinct organisms or sites that used to be.”
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To some people, a tree is just a tree, good for timber or rubber or paper.
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To others, it is just a tree, taking up land they could use to raise cattle and grow coffee or soybeans.
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She wondered, How can one leaf detective make a difference?
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How can I save the trees?
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I must save the trees!
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“Plants gave me a voice!”
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She taught them to climb trees and survey the forests, to identify and collect orchids and ferns.
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Now they could sell crops and plants instead of trees.
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In western Samoa she convinced the people to build a canopy walkway.
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Now they could make money to build a school by sharing their rainforest with the world through canopy tourism.
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“Now, first and foremost, I ask ‘How can we save it?’ so that later I can return and ask ‘What and why?’”
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It is a shelter for animals and people, a recycler and provider of water, a creator of food and oxygen, an inventor of medicine, a soldier against climate change.
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It is essential for life on earth.
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“If only I could have achieved as much as the tree!… But I have not. I have whittled away at relatively small goals in comparison to the grander accomplishments of a tree.”
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To be the first scientist to do so.
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But she encountered challenge after challenge.
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Male teachers would not let her in their classrooms.
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The high canopy was difficult to get to.
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And worst of all, people were logging and clearing the forests.
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She studied, invented, and persevered, not only creating a future for herself as a scientist, but making sure that the rainforests had a future as well.
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And she did it back in 1979 without ever having a single female professor or mentor.
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That alone could have been a book.
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Her canopy studies in Australia showed that leaves live as little as three months and as long as nineteen years!
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Like a leaf she unfurled, gradually transforming from a shy and quiet child, who didn’t know women could be scientists, into a world-class scientist, educator, and conservationist.
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Once her two sons were born, she had to find a way to bring them with her into the field.
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Seeing nature through their eyes helped her realize the importance of educating young people about their rainforests,
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Her struggles also inspired her passion to mentor women and minorities in field biology in the United States and as far away as Ethiopia and India.
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And to ensure that science really is for everyone, she created a tree-climbing research program for student in wheelchairs.
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We met some indigenous people and learned how they live off the rainforest in sustainable ways.
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We soaked up her talks about leaves, plant adaptations, mutualism, and the dangers of deforestation.
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This tree reminds her that “taking the road less traveled has its advantages.”
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My first climb into the canopy was exhilarating, and looking down from the safety of a walkway, I imagined what it must have been like for her to be up there dangling from a rope.
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The views and bird-watching from the canopy walkway at sunrise and sunset took my breath away,
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And night walks, with tarantulas, scorpions, and the loud sounds of busy animals, both excited and unnerved me.
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She has given me a new appreciation for the interconnectedness of our world and transformed me into a tree lover.
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Now, to me, a tree is not just a tree-good for picnics or rope swings or a shady spot to read a book. It is so much more!
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Imagine you are a visitor in the Amazon rainforest in Peru looking up at a tree.
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Would you ever guess that it could contain thousands of insect species and many other animals?
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The rainforest is filled with life!
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There are four different layers, and each forms a habitat for a different group plant and animals.
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Working together, these layers are the engine that supports the rainforest and life on earth.
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The extreme weather and unstable branches make this a challenging place for animals to live.
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There are lots of epiphytes (plants that grow on other plants), including bromeliads, which can hold water for frogs, salamanders, and insects.
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Leafy bushes, tree trunks, small trees, and climbing vines make up the understory.
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Saplings (young trees) wait for an opening that will let in sunlight - their chance to make it to the top.
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The understory is darker and more humid than the canopy, perfect for tropical plants with larger leaves.
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It might seem quiet, but there is lots of action on the dark, damp forest floor!
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Covered with soil, dead leaves, and fallen plants, the forest floor is where life begins and ends.
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Termites and other small organisms break down material, and then soil fungi take any nutrients and transfer them to plant roots just below the surface.
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Millions of indigenous people use the rainforests their superstore.
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Remo Caspi: trunk for canoe paddles; bark cures malaria
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Kapok Tree: fibers for pillow and mattress stuffing.
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Walking Palm: trunk for floors, walls and hunting spears.
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Aguaje Palm: leaves for roofs; fruit for juice and desserts
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Palm Weevil Larva: a tasty treat - grilled or raw!
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Cat’s Claw: used to treat arthritis and prevent cancer
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Jergon Sacha: underground stem to cure snake bites
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