A sensory experience I encourage in the Garden, is a gentle touch of bark. Using fingertips, I gently trace the grooves and ridges, the topography of a trunk, and in doing so I create a connection with the tree and heighten our moment together. It is a little sensual if I do say so myself, hah!
What is bark? Simply put, bark is a layer of lightweight dead cells that acts as armor and protects the tree from drying out. As the tree ages, the circumference of its trunk expands. That expansion causes bark to do all sorts of fun things. Some bark, like the European copper beech continues as one entire smooth layer—it will stretch and add more cells, creating fine horizontal lines. Some smooth bark has obvious lenticels which are small pores for gas exchange—these markings can also stretch, appearing on some species as elongated ovals. Some bark will crack under this expansion which creates furrows or negative space around plates and scales. In time, plates and scales of bark may break off in pieces—puzzle-shaped, strips, chunks and other funky shapes—to be replaced with younger and newer bark.

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