The Lucky Tree of Chapel Rock

Nature can take hold in precarious places. Chapel Rock on Lake Superior has a single tree perched atop its column. By rights the tree should not be there: the small surface area of land on the top of the rock is insufficient to sustain a tree of this size. There is hardly any topsoil, certainly not enough for an obviously thriving tree. How then does it flourish? Image Credit Flickr User DJblock99 Image Credit Flickr User Jim's Travels Look a little closer and you will see the answer – that rope on the right of the picture is not, in fact a rope. It is a system of roots, extending and stretching over the edge of the rock to the main bluff where there are nutrients and water aplenty. Image Credit Flickr User mtsn Yet how on earth did the root extend over to the mainland? Did it slither in some triffid like way until it reached the other side? Is there a Little Shop of Horrors thing happening here? If you can remember the puzzle about the hanged man in an empty room then you are moving…