How trees grow<\/strong> – Trees are like factories, where production is dependent on how many workers (leaves) can gather sunlight, convert carbon, and store it in the warehouse (trunk or stem) as wood.<\/p>\n

Shade tolerance<\/strong> – Not all trees respond to light and shade the same way throughout their lifespan.<\/p>\n

How trees interact with each other<\/strong> – If a tree doesn’t have enough light it will either not grow at all and die, or it will grow slowly and with poor form.<\/p>\n

Tree age<\/strong> – Certain species of trees will only live to a certain age range, and must interact with other trees to gain a competitive advantage to become a large productive tree.<\/p>\n

If two or more trees start as seedlings with plenty of light, generally a few of those trees gain advantages by either genetic superiority or a localized patch of good soil to get started. Once those few trees gain the advantage, the advantage carries with them through most of their growth and life.<\/p>\n

More sunlight means more workers (leaves) to invest in, and therefore bigger roots, more branches to support more leaves, more height, more sunlight to catch, and the process gains traction from there into a big dominant tree.<\/p>\n

The trees that don’t gain the competitive advantage early, fall further and further behind and go into survival mode, which means they only invest in enough leaves and growth for the limited light it receives under the shadow of the bigger trees.<\/p>\n

For these suppressed trees, this means less branches, smaller root systems, and ultimately a smaller stem. These trees do this and ride it out until they don’t get enough sunlight at all and die, or until they reach the end of their lifespan (maturity) and then die. Often times, these suppressed trees are mistaken for younger trees, and its assumed that if given room to grow, they will grow into a big old tree.<\/p>\n

Lets look at a live example:<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n