Jenny McElwain

speaker

162 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 2 Jul

Jenny McElwain’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.

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In Our Time · The Evolution of Trees · 2 Jul 2026 podcast

In the early record, they're rootless, but they evolve roots.

And in the early record, they have no leaves, but they evolve leaves.

I would call it a tree.

I have a broad definition of a tree.

I just gave the strict one.

Yeah, so I think we mostly think of trees, we use the term ecosystem engineer.

So they just build this structural complexity.

So if you imagine you've got 20 herbs, you know, they're not trees, they're small in a space and now swap that with 20 trees.

So the trees will increase the volume of complexity.

So as soon as you have trees, you begin to have layers of habitats.

So let's say you go hiking on a hot day.

It's really hot.

It's really drying.

But you walk into a cool forest.

You can feel the moisture increase.

You can feel the shade and the coolness.

So what trees do in a space is they create a microclimate.

They change the light.

So you now have understory plants, you have middle story plants and you have canopy plants.

They change the humidity.

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