Format
watercolor and colored marker on illustration boardDigitization Status
DigitizedReproduction:
OriginalDimensions
34 cm W x 54.6 cm H (Item)
Extent
1 sheetDescription
Primarily textual teaching aid depicting Arboretum landscape. This material is depicted in the shape of a bur oak leaf. It describes how a line of bur oaks indicates where the climax forest and climax prairie met.
Header: FOREST met PRAIRIE [illustration of grass and trees]
Text and illustrations from top to bottom:
- The Record
- 1. a curving line of bur oaks
- 2. the heavy corky bark of the bur oaks, in comparison with bark of red oak.
- 3. the change in soil profiles at edge of oaks this [illustration of soil] to this [illustration of darker soil]
- Interpreting the Record
- 1) Because bur oaks, with their corky bark were best able to withstand the fires that swept the prairies (often set by Indians) and
- 2) because bur oaks are best at withstanding dry prairie winds
- 3) because bur oaks are seldom found in the heart of the woods
- We Read that: this line of bur oaks marks the place where the climax forest met the prairie climax