John Jack Repenning (1993)

	ystcny.gif is a GIF picture of a lodgepole pine hanging by its
	fingernails onto a cliff over the Grand Canyon of the
	Yellowstone (not to be confused with the Grand Canyon [of the
	Colorado], a more famous canyon a few states to the south).
	The interesting tree is the yellowish one, just right of
	center, in the foreground (sorry not to focus in on it more -
	I had no climbing ropes with me!;v) This tree illustrates the
	same growth peculiarity as does the one in msprng.gif.

	This rather small tree (around one meter high) displays a
	configuration fairly common throughout Yellowstone park, but
	which I've never seen before: a sizable part of the root-ball
	(actually, "root disc," since these pines naturally spread
	their roots widely but shallowly) has been tilted out of the
	ground, and now sticks up into the air.  The trunk has been
	laid flat onto the hillside, pointing down hill, but has
	subsequently bent around over 90 degrees, and now points
	happily up.

	The exposed root disc looks to be about half of the whole.  I
	suppose the tree could survive adequately on this much root
	under ground, but I'm mystified as to how there could be so
	much root in the air: if the tree was tipped over when the
	roots were that big, the trunk would (I would think) be too
	thick and stiff to return to the vertical; if, on the other
	hand, the tree fell while young and pliant, then the exposed
	root disc would be much smaller.  Is it possible that the
	exposed root disc is still alive, functioning when the ground
	is snow-covered?