This week we head out west and marvel at the orange-clad giants of the pine world, the ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa). We dive into one of the most interesting weather phenomena in the world, the rain shadow effect, and chat about how seemingly unrelated patterns of geology and weather change who grows where. Then, you guessed it, we ruminate on the nature of sasquatch.

Completely Arbortrary is produced and hosted by Casey Clapp and Alex Crowson

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Cover art by Jillian Barthold

Music by Aves and The Mini-Vandals

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Welcome to Vermont, sugar! This week we're charging headlong into the snowy forests of the Northeast United States to tap one of the sweetest trees in the game, the Sugar Maple! Sap, syrup and sugar... this one goes out to the sweet tooths.

Completely Arbortrary is produced and hosted by Casey Clapp and Alex Crowson

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Cover art by Jillian Barthold

Music by Aves and The Mini-Vandals

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The tree that does it all. This week we dive into what makes the black willow (Salix nigra), and willows more broadly, such revered trees. From curing your dysentery or soothing an aching tooth to restoring wetlands and always putting out new roots and new shoots, this tree has something for everyone.

Completely Arbortrary is produced and hosted by Casey Clapp and Alex Crowson

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Cover art by Jillian Barthold

Music by Aves and The Mini-Vandals

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This week we're talking about the tragic tale of the Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta). Human greed, voracious beetles, and graveyard forests... it's our most depressing episode yet!

Completely Arbortrary is produced and hosted by Casey Clapp and Alex Crowson

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Cover art by Jillian Barthold

Music by Aves and The Mini-Vandals

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This week we're taking it to the streets to discuss the European Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus). Casey waxes poetic about his great interest and love for urban forests, which includes explaining to Alex what an urban forest actually is. Then we answer a question from a listener about trees and climate change.

Completely Arbortrary is produced and hosted by Casey Clapp and Alex Crowson

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Cover art by Jillian Barthold

Music by Aves and The Mini-Vandals

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A sleeping giant awakens! Enter dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides). The deciduous conifer (gasp!) dominated the Northern hemisphere for thousands of millenia before Mother Nature spirited it away entirely… or so we thought. Then, we take a journey through time and space as we journey The Cone Zone.

Completely Arbortrary is produced and hosted by Casey Clapp and Alex Crowson

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Cover art by Jillian Barthold

Music by Aves and The Mini-Vandals

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What smells like barf, lived with dinosaurs, and makes for a great tattoo? This tree! Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) is a living fossil; a tree so old it lived among prehistoric monsters, and so long-lived that it lives among modern humans. A true survivor, this tree spent thousands of millenia hermitting in its little corner of China. But today we've all got Ginkgo fever, and this ancient species is now planted worldwide and beloved by many. It's a vomit-scented episode that'll really stick with you.

Completely Arbortrary is produced and hosted by Casey Clapp and Alex Crowson

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Cover art by Jillian Barthold

Music by Aves and The Mini-Vandals

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Villainous arboreal poisoner, or misunderstood forest benefactor? Despite its bipinnately gorgeous appearance and emotional significance to the general public, the black walnut (Juglans nigra) has spent decades under the critical gaze of tree lovers for its allegedly allelopathic behavior. But when new studies come to light, this cold case turns red hot! Misophonia warning: candied nuts will be munched.

Completely Arbortrary is produced and hosted by Casey Clapp and Alex Crowson

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Cover art by Jillian Barthold

Music by Aves and The Mini-Vandals

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Gather 'round to hear the unfortunate tale of the arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis), a tree that's truly less than the sum of its parts. A mass-produced hedge tree in the Cypress family that's exploited on west coast surbuban streets, this tree has plenty of faults and makes for good gossip. But can a tree be inherently bad, or is a tree made bad by the people who plant it? Then stick around for our first ever game, Binomial Bonanza!

Completely Arbortrary is produced and hosted by Casey Clapp and Alex Crowson

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Cover art by Jillian Barthold

Music by Aves and The Mini-Vandals

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SQUIRRELS! Today we burrow head first into a discussion of the Oregon white oak (Quercus garryana), another house favorite tree named by David Douglas, and our first broadleaf species. Most years these mighty acorn-makers supply local squirrel populations with plenty of food for winter. But what happens when an oak takes the year off, and how does that affect the squirrel world (or, Squirrorld ™)? Are squirrels organizational geniuses... or do they simply think like squirrels? How many times can you say the word "squirrel" until it starts to sound like gibberish? All these answers and more, on this episode of Completely Arbortrary.

Completely Arbortrary is produced and hosted by Casey Clapp and Alex Crowson

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Cover art by Jillian Barthold

Music by Aves and The Mini-Vandals

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.