Why Do Trees Take So Long To Grow?

If you stare at your flowerbeds every year in the springtime to marvel at new blooms and the quick pushing aside of soil to reveal stems and buds shooting up to the sky, you may have also wondered why the nearby trees are budding again but appear to be the same size as they were the year before. Unlike flowers and smaller foliage, trees grow at an impressively slow speed by comparison. While you can almost watch a flower bud unfold before your eyes, a tree may not show much aside from leaves forming and falling throughout an entire season time-lapse. Find out more about a typical lifespan of a tree and who to call for tree removal in Cambridge. 

The Lifespan of a Tree

The adage of the mighty oak comes to mind when considering the lifespan of the tree. The saying goes that the mighty oak was once just a little nut that once stood its ground and rings mostly true for all intents and purposes. 

Baby Trees

The tree’s life span begins when a seed finds the perfect conditions to stop being dormant and start germinating. While the odds are typically against the little nut turning into the mighty oak, it sometimes happens, beginning with the first root breaking out of the shell and penetrating the ground. When the root gets comfortable, another extension stretches up the other way, reaching through the soil and hitting fresh air and light. 

Adolescent Trees

When the shoot hits the natural world, it is referred to as a seedling. A seedling’s life is risky and vulnerable to sudden death by wildlife, weather, humans, or lack of resources. However, if it makes it past the seedling stage and hits the three-foot mark, it then becomes sapling. To begin to quantify the grow time for trees, the mighty oak is known to spend upwards of twenty years as a sapling and is considered to be young until the age of 100. 

Mature Trees

Alternately, it takes other trees much less time to reach maturity. Rowan trees and some other fruit trees are mature and can produce both flowers and fruit, the indicators for maturity, between the 7- and 15-year marks. Depending on the overall lifespan of the tree species in question, the time it takes to reach maturity will vary; the longer the lifespan, the longer it takes to reach maturity. 

Ancient Trees 

Trees don’t stop growing once they hit maturity, either. Those with an exceptionally long lifespan continue to grow into what is known as ancient trees. They can live hundreds of years. Baobab trees, for example, are known to live upwards of 3,000 years. 

The Measurements of a Tree 

If you’re wondering how arborists can tell the age of a tree, you’re not alone. Every tree is not cut down to reveal its rings like you were taught in primary school. Determining the age of a tree is complex—many different pieces of information must be considered before making the final decision. 

• Measuring the tree’s circumference 
• Calculating growth factor rates 
• Counting interior rings through extraction
• Climate and weather events 

The Timing of a Tree

While most trees have the same growing time, different trees can grow simultaneously depending on the environment and the ecosystem’s health. The same variables that determine a tree’s age can affect its growth. Some trees will stop growing vertically at one point in their lives and begin to grow horizontally.

Professionals arborists can determine both the species and the growth rate factor for the trees on or around your property. Contact the certified arborists at Martin’s Tree Service today for more information on trees’ lifespan or to find tree cutting services near me.