Could trees ever get up and walk away?

agile: Able to move quickly (and pivot as needed) with skill and little apparent effort. Sometimes the term is applied to thinking and project management as well as to athletic pursuits.

alien: A non-native organism. (in astronomy) Life on or from a distant world.

align: (noun: alignment) To place or organize things in a patterned order, following an apparent line.

appendage: A finger, leg, ear, antenna or other feature that sticks out from some creature and has some apparent specific function.

beetle: An order of insects known as Coleoptera, containing at least 350,000 different species. Adults tend to have hard and/or horn-like “forewings” which covers the wings used for flight.

birds: Warm-blooded animals with wings that first showed up during the time of the dinosaurs. Birds are jacketed in feathers and produce young from the eggs they deposit in some sort of nest. Most birds fly, but throughout history there have been the occasional species that don’t.

climate: The weather conditions that typically exist in one area, in general, or over a long period.

climate change: Long-term, significant change in the climate of Earth. It can happen naturally or in response to human activities, including the burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests.

concrete: To be solid and real.

Costa Rica: A Central American nation with coastlines along both the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea. This country of nearly 5 million people is sandwiched between Nicaragua to the north and Panama to its south. Almost one-fourth of its land consists of protected rainforests, which are home to such animals as spider monkeys and the quetzal birds.

develop: To emerge or to make come into being, either naturally or through human intervention, such as by manufacturing. (in biology) To grow as an organism from conception through adulthood, often undergoing changes in chemistry, size, mental maturity or sometimes even shape.

ecologist: A scientist who works in a branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings.

forest: An area of land covered mostly with trees and other woody plants.

galaxy: A group of stars — and usually invisible, mysterious dark matter — all held together by gravity. Giant galaxies, such as the Milky Way, often have more than 100 billion stars. The dimmest galaxies may have just a few thousand. Some galaxies also have gas and dust from which they make new stars.

generation: A group of individuals (in any species) born at about the same time or that are regarded as a single group. Your parents belong to one generation of your family, for example, and your grandparents to another. Similarly, you and everyone within a few years of your age across the planet are referred to as belonging to a particular generation of humans. The term also is sometimes extended to year classes of other animals or to types of inanimate objects (such as electronics or automobiles).

habitat: The area or natural environment in which an animal or plant normally lives, such as a desert, coral reef or freshwater lake. A habitat can be home to thousands of different species.

hormone: (in botany) A chemical that serves as a signaling compound that tells cells of a plant when and how to develop, or when to grow old and die.

hypothesize: (n. hypothesis) To propose an explanation for a phenomenon. In science, this hypothesis is an idea that must be rigorously tested before it is accepted or rejected.

ice age: Earth has experienced at least five major ice ages, which are prolonged periods of unusually cold weather experienced by much of the planet. During that time, which can last hundreds to thousands of years, glaciers and ice sheets expand in size and depth. The most recent ice age peaked 21,500 years ago, but continued until about 13,000 years ago.

ice sheet: A broad blanket of ice, often kilometers deep. Ice sheets currently cover most of Antarctica. An ice sheet also blankets most of Greenland. During the last glaciation, ice sheets also covered much of North America and Europe.

indigenous: Native to some region. (in anthropology) An adjective (and capitalized) for people that have lived for eons in some region, developing a culture that reflects the resources, climate and ecosystems of that place.

invasive: An adjective that refers to something that can invade some environment (such as an invasive species) or alter some environment (such as invasive medical procedures).

mangrove: A type of shrub or tree that lives mostly in coastal swamps and usually has long, tangled, above-ground roots.

migrate: To move long distances (often across many countries) in search of a new home. (in biology) To travel from one place to another at regular times of the year to find food or more hospitable conditions (such as better weather). Species that migrate each year are referred to as being migratory.

migration: (v. migrate) Movement from one region or habitat to another, especially regularly (and according to the seasons) or to cope with some driving force (such as climate or war). An individual that makes this move is known as a migrant.

moisture: Small amounts of water present in the air, as vapor. It can also be present as a liquid, such as water droplets condensed on the inside of a window, or dampness present in clothing or soil.

nutrient: A vitamin, mineral, fat, carbohydrate or protein that a plant, animal or other organism requires as part of its food in order to survive.

octopus: (pl. octopi or octopuses) Sea mollusks with a soft, sac-shaped body and eight arms. Two rows of suckers along each arm give the animal an ability to grasp and hold onto things. Cousins of the squids, these animals have a sharp beak-like mouth and good vision.

orc: A fictional and villainous goblin-like humanoid found in the Lord of the Rings stories, which were created by J.R.R. Tolkien.

palm: A type of evergreen tree that sprouts a crown of large fan-shaped leaves. Most of the roughly 2,600 different species of palms are tropical or semitropical.

phenomenon: Something that is surprising or unusual.

physiologist: A scientist who studies the branch of biology that deals with how the bodies of healthy organisms function under normal circumstances.

pressure: Force applied uniformly over a surface, measured as force per unit of area.

refuge: Some place that provides safety, such as protection from danger, discomfort or pursuit. For instance, a cave could provide refuge from the storm.

resident: Some member of a community of organisms that lives in a particular place. (Antonym: visitor)

solar: Having to do with the sun or the radiation it emits. It comes from sol, Latin for sun.

solar energy: The energy in sunlight that can be captured as heat or converted into heat or electrical energy. Some people refer to wind power as a form of solar energy. The reason: Winds are driven by the variations in temperatures and the density of the air, both of which are affected by the solar heating of the air, ground and surface waters.

species: A group of similar organisms capable of producing offspring that can survive and reproduce.

spruce: Any of several dozen species of coniferous evergreen tree.

sun: The star at the center of Earth’s solar system. It is about 27,000 light-years from the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Also a term for any sunlike star.