8. The life of a Hickory Tree

It is fall in the forest. Squirrels are busy. They are looking for nuts. They need to store the nuts. They save them to eat in the winter. This squirrel does not save all the nuts. He eats one now. He cracks the shell. Then he eats the tasty nut.

Another squirrel finds a hickory nut. He hears a noise. He drops the nut and runs away. The nut hits a stone. It bounces to the ground. Soon, leaves fall on the nut. They hide it. This is a lucky nut. It will grow into a hickory tree. Most other nuts will not. Squirrels and other animals will eat them.

Even bears like to eat hickory nuts. They eat them whenever they can. Bears do not find this hidden nut. The shell of the nut rots. During winter, the nut sinks into the soil. Animals are looking for food in the forest. Rabbits and mice do not find the nut. It is buried deep in the ground. 

It is spring in the forest. The seed inside the nut sprouts. It grows roots. They go deep into the ground. The roots absorb water from the soil. The little tree grows. Years pass. The big hickory tree makes more nuts. Most of them never sprout.

Time passes. After ten years, the tree is seven feet tall. It is as thick as a man’s thumb. The leaves grow in clumps of five. They are light green in the summer. In the fall, they turn yellow. The tree faces many dangers. It can be chopped down. Fires can hurt it. Bugs may make holes in it. Birds may peck the holes and make them bigger.

More time passes. After twenty years, the bark is still smooth. Now the tree is thirty years old. Its coverings start to split. Each part of the bark is tight in the middle. The edges curve away from the trunk. This makes the tree look shaggy. After forty years, the first nuts appear. Some of the nuts take root. They might grow into trees. Hickory trees can live for 300 years!

It’s fall in the forest. A squirrel comes out. It knows when the hickory tree has nuts. The squirrel looks for them. Other animals look for nuts, too. Will they find all of the nuts? Will one lucky nut sprout in the spring? Throughout the forest, trees are growing. Each one is in a different stage of life.