#wnps

“The coevolution of flowering plants and their animal pollinators presents one of nature's most striking examples of adaption and specialization. It also demonstrates how the interaction between two groups of organisms can be a font of biological diversity. Flowering plants are adapting to their pollinators, which are in turn adapting to the plants. Each of the participating organisms thus presents an evolutionary "moving target". The relationship between these distantly related taxa is symbiotic in the broad sense that characterizes life and that gives rise to the high degree of complexity and diversity that we perceive in nature. If the rule in nature is "whatever works," our observations are that many things work, and that what works keeps changing. Our understanding is that each species evolves to its own benefit; in coevolution, these two self-interests collide, and remarkable things happen.”

“How, exactly, do conifers and broadleaved trees approach the task of surviving and reproducing? What does each have to gain from its way of doing things? How does each one use the resources at its disposal to thrive? I'm writing here about evergreen conifers—those that keep their leaves during the winter—and deciduous broadleaves—those that lose their leaves in the fall. Those qualifications apply to all of the trees that are native to the Methow Watershed, with two exceptions—the Alpine and Western larches (Larix lyallii and L. occidentalis)—deciduous conifers that have adapted to extreme environments by adopting characteristics of both types of tree. “