The Biosphere Blog

The Bud Diary: Part 1: Introduction I wrote some posts recently as introductions to the unusual branch structure of jujube trees — here and here — but these were pretty much informal segues not at all clear from the titles. So instead of continuing, I… more »

What Would You Make of This Tree? Below is one little Si-Hong, grafted in 2023, in a pot of 190 mm diameter and height. Is your first impression somewhat unfavourable?! I find this little fellow so charming and full of heart, that I can’t help but… more »

Which Tree Would You Choose? The three trees below are all 2022 grafted Li. The trunk of the tallest is about 500 mm high. These and a few others had lovely thick roots, but these were not especially long or dense. There was absolutely nothing wrong… more »

This post is an addition to this recent one — the trees back then weren’t showing these signs to photograph, but they sure are now, in droves! Unlike the very easy to see signs of mahogany flushes and green sap, this sign may need incredible… more »

On Grafting A very common practice in horticulture and agriculture is to graft (attach) an above-ground piece from one species onto the well-rooted stump of another species. The two parts are left to fuse together and become one. After several years it… more »

Here is a typical young tree as it would arrive: Not exactly much to look at is there?! And sometimes it may sit there like that for days or weeks, looking like a lifeless stick. It is quite understandable that people become anxious when there are no… more »

Preamble After many (I wish I had logged) research and writing hours, 16, 000+ words, 70+ images and six posts later (seven including this one), I could easily end this little mini-series with the same sentence with which it began: TL;DR There’s… more »

Introduction Part 3 of what turned out to be a mini-series (! this wasn’t the intent!) covered the real reason behind Earth’s temperatures past and present — the Sun. This massive object is almost 99.9% of the total mass of the Solar System,… more »

The Spermatophytes The spermatophytes are the seed-producing plants, of which there are two groups: the Gymnospermae which produce cones and exposed seeds, and the Angiospermae which produce flowers and seed enclosed by fruits. Gymnospermae… more »

Introduction Let us revisit Dr Soon, and two more slides from that brilliant talk. As with the previous posts, the screenshots below are direct links to the timestamp they were taken at, for people to view more detail if they wish. Please take the time… more »

Below is a photo of a Chico taken by Kim Sau, who has kindly given permission to use it: This tree is a perfect size to use as an exercise in identifying both the graft and all four branch types of a jujube tree, so let us begin! (Please consider this… more »

Introduction Part 3 on the Sun and climate is coming — slowly! — but in the meantime I just had to include a snippet from this most timely two-year-old talk by Dr Willie Soon which came my way just recently (thanks Phil!). Dr Soon’s entire talk is… more »

Introduction There are four major spheres of Earth: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the lithosphere (land), and the biosphere (life). The vast bulk of ‘climate change’ science concerns fields within the first three, which are… more »

The Great Global Warming Swindle Documentary Breakdown This post is a breakdown of Martin Durkin’s documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle, which first aired on the UK’s Channel 4 on 8th March 2007. I chose this film for its broad… more »

TL;DR There’s no global warming spiralling out of control, and our climate is predominantly driven by the Sun. Preamble I didn’t really want to write any of this, to be honest. The whole subject of carbon dioxide (CO2) is… more »