"You went into jail in the summer. It is fall now. You will have stories to cover--Iraqi elections and suicide bombers, biological threats and the Iranian nuclear program. Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them. Come back to work---and life. Until then, you will remain in my thoughts and prayers."
Well, Slate did an interesting piece on the aspen tree. While the roots are connected, that does not necessarily cause them to "turn" in clusters, as differing exposures to environmental factors such as rain and sun can cause the leaves of individual trees to change colors at different times. It looks like Scooter is as bad at biology as he is in avoiding indictments!
The article also stated that aspen trees multiply through asexual reproduction. Such a process of asexual reproduction is actually quite common in nature, though. We see this reproduction without sex in plants, such as ferns:
and in simple animals:
and in:
of you have sat, and perhaps thought, with us!
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