I had never heard or seen this word before last night - I was reading about my latest object of obsession (elephants), and I ran across this passage:
In reply to:
...the small, gnarled trees coppice when laid on their sides, turning branches that touch the earth into new sets of roots.
Silent Thunder, Katharine Payne
Atomica claims it's something different: A thicket or grove of small trees or shrubs, especially one maintained by periodic cutting or pruning to encourage suckering, as in the cultivation of cinnamon trees for their bark.
See also: copse. [Well, that makes sense...]
http://m-w.com seems to recognize it as a verb, but not exactly in the way she's used it above:
transitive senses : to cut back so as to regrow in the form of a coppice
intransitive senses : to form a coppice; specifically of a tree : to sprout freely from the base
SO - can someone find a citation that substantiates her use of the word? Have I been living under a rock that I've never heard it before? Has anyone seen trees do this? Can I have a nickel?
Hi, FB
Yes, I've seen trees do this many a time. And naturally. In fact, it happens to trees that fall after storms or high winds and many new trees will come up eventually around the fallen one.
However, I've never seen the verb "coppice," although I've seen and recognized the noun form and had just assumed it meant a copse, so it's pretty exciting for me--a great tree lover--to now have a verb for what I've seen many times in nature.
I saw once a red mulberry tree that someone had cut back to get rid of it, and the next season dozens of young mulberries came up from the cut-off trunk. That's a little different in application in that the tree was entirely cut back, so I'm not sure whether your coppice verb would apply. However, I'll check my tree references and see whether I can find some quotes for you.
Thanks very much for the verb.
Almost forty years ago I read about the then richest man in the world named
Daniel Keith Ludwig getting conttrol of a huge tract of land near the Amazon, having
a papermill built in Japan on a huge barge and transported across the Pacific Ocean
and up the Amazon river. He had a forestry expert who had selected a couple of rapid
growing trees that by coppice management could yield a sustained yield of
wood for paper making;. The coppice management meant that the tree could be cut
close to the ground, but would not be killed, and in a short time would bebig enough to be
harvested again. Other experts predicted that such "monoculture" would invite disease to
wipe out the whole project as gad previously happened to large plantings of rubber trees.
Apparently the project failed, and the land reverted to the Brazilian government. But I
never found any magazine stories about it.
Elsewhere in ancient times coppice referred to maintaining a sustained yield of
firewood by cutting branches off trees rather than cutting the trunk. The word also refers
to a place where the trees are not tall.
One sad thing about the Internet is that sites get removed, so that it is now impossible
to find anything about Daniel Keith Ludwig on the Internet.
Well, we've sure discussed "polling" of trees before here, but now I'm wondering what the difference might be between polling a tree and coppicing it...???
Hallelueia! I found a site about Daniel Keith Ludwig that was not there a year ago.
http://www.pir.org/main1/Daniel_Keith_Ludwig.htmlNow I've got to go look at it to see if I can find out what happened to the paper
business.
copse - 1578, contraction of coppice, from O.Fr. coupeiz "a
cut-over forest," from V.L. *colpare "to cut, strike," from
L.L. colpus "a blow" (see coup).
You find coppice in a polis station.
And a gay male is non colpos mentis.
> You find coppice in a polis station. <
CK, I really enjoyed your twist. Your mind thinks similarly to mine. Be afraid ... be VERY afraid. :)
S'okay. You appear to be in British Columbia. I'm just in British. Takes more than that to scare me!
FB:
Thanks. I guess there's a word for just about everything. I took a picutre of one of these trees in the side yard of a lovely old house in Ocracoke NC, this summer. I'd had about as much as I could stand of being cooped up with two kids during a rainy day, even though the hotel room was 1400 (yep 1400!) SF. So I took a walk in a gentle misting rain, called in Ireland a soft day, and saw this coppiced tree.
I'll look it up on the disk and send it to anyone who asks.
TEd
PS:
I have this REALLY neat new digital camera that records directly onto a CD-RW in the camera, and can take more than 300 pictures on one disk! Goodbye film!
TR
Of course, some plants won't do this coppice stuff. Members of the mint family are typical, subscribing to the legal theory of non coppice mintis.
A misty day is a soft day? Is there a hard day, too, in Ireland?
coppicing is a very ancient form of woodland management in Britain. As has been suggested, above, it involves cutting young trees (about 8 year old, usually - does depend a bit on the variety of tree) back to about a foot above ground level and allowing it to re-grow. The new growth takes the form of sefveral thin shoots which, after about five or six years are thick enough to be harveted and the poles used for a variety of purposes. One of the main ones was to make charcoal, which was a major fuel in Britain until the late C18, when the canal system made transpoirt of mined coal so much cheaper that most people could afford it. (By which time, the tree population of Britain had become greatly depleted, from the demands of ship-building and house-building.)
Another use for coppiced wood was for the making of hurdles and baskets. In the southern parts of what is now Cumbria, coppiced oak was used to make large baskets which were so close woven that, without any sort of caulking, they would hold water.
As Macbeth said when he saw Birnam wood bearing down on Dunsinane, "Cheese it, the copse!"
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Dear slithy: I'll bet you cannot find a mention of camouflage older than the one you
mentiond.
And a URL with a picture of a coppiced tree in RC's region.
http://www.strum.co.uk/scratch/everdon.htm
a mention of camouflage older than the one you
mentiond
Probably not, Dr.Bill. Obviously it's existed in nature forever, but when was it first mentioned?
I just found out last night that one of the women in our chorus is Katy Payne's daughter (Katy herself has sung in the chorus in the past) and I told her about our discussion of her mother's use of coppice. Katy is off in England involved in some animal conference. The elephant wasn't there, being in the refrigerator at the time.
ok, I'll bite:
the elephant is in the refrigerator?
Old series of jokes. Favorite of USn school boys.
How do you get a giraffe in a refrigerator?
How do you get an elephant in a refrigerator?
The Lion called a conference of the animals. Everybody came except the Elephant. Why didn't the Elephant come?
A group of Great White Hunters came upon a crocodile infested river. The bridge was out and the nearest bridge was 100 miles away. They desperately needed to get across the river today. How did they do it?
hmmm. I used to be an USn schoolboy, and I teach 5-8 grade now, and I don't remember that one...
but it does remind me of the other old goodie:
how do you get down off an elephant?
that was my Dad's favorite...
Silly, silly, you can't get down of an elephant, down comes off a goose!
How do you get a giraffe in a refrigerator?
Open the door, put the giraffe in, close the door.
How do you get an elephant in a refrigerator?
How do you get an elephant in a refrigerator?
Open the door, take the giraffe out, put the elephant in, close the door.
How do you get an elephant in a refrigerator?
Open the door, take the giraffe out, put the elephant in, close the door.
Horrorshow! Now:
The Lion called a conference of the animals. Everybody came except the Elephant. Why didn't the Elephant come?
Forced celibacy because he was in the refrigerator?
Forced celibacy
Minus one hundred points for introducing adult content into a harmless children's riddle game.
I was reading about my latest object of obsession (elephants)
... don't tell me ... it was a picture book of elephant graveyards?
Why did the elephant paint its toenails red?
to hide in the cherry(or apple) tree...
ever seen an elephant in a cherry tree?
Or a strawberry patch! Ever see an elephant hide? [giggle]
why'd the elephant wear green sneakers?
How do you get an elephant down out of a tree?
How do you get an elephant down out of a tree?
Umm--tell him you see a flying mouse coming toward him?
How do you know that there is an elephant in bed with you?
how do you get an elephant down out of a tree? You sit him on a leaf and wait until autumn ...
In reply to:
How do you know that there is an elephant in bed with you?
By all the peanut shells under the covers?
>How do you know that there is an elephant in bed with you?
>By all the peanut shells under the covers?
Good try.
It is very easy actually because they always wear pink pyjamas with the ketter "E" embroidered on the top left pocket.
Tellme - if elephants make love in the water,
do they take their trunks off first?
You'll be looking for new trash bin liners.
You'll be looking for new trash bin liners.
Are you implying that an elephant wouldn't come prepared, TEd?