As Kevin Anchukaitis put it, the Tree Rings’ Tale told by the olive tree is “Really really really really really really hard” to read. From Cherubini et al:
Dendrochronological analyses of olive trees growing on the Aegean island Santorini (Greece) show that the determination of the number of tree-rings is impossible because of intra-annual wood density fluctuations, variability in tree-ring boundary structure, and restriction of its cambial activity to shifting sectors of the circumference, causing the tree-ring sequences along radii of the same cross section to differ.
We will have to leave the olive tree to literary dating:
Good morrow, fair ones: pray you, if you know,
Where in the purlieus of this forest stands
A sheep-cote fenced about with olive trees?
I did not know that, but it makes sense. Kind of cool that this tree still has secrets and mysteries. Thank you John!
Best,
D
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