Q.While on the trip to Kashmir, Pintoo observed that cut portions of large trees shows distinct rings, which he never found in Maharashtra. Why is so?

Step 1. Whether growth rings are visible at all depends on how strongly the local climate forces the cambium to alternate between favourable-season (spring) wood and unfavourable-season (autumn) wood.

Step 2. Kashmir has a temperate climate with a clearly defined warm growing season and a cold, largely dormant winter — this sharp seasonal swing makes the cambium's output change abruptly each year, laying down one spring-wood band followed by one autumn-wood band, together forming one clearly visible ring per year.

Step 3. Large parts of Maharashtra, by contrast, have a comparatively uniform tropical/sub-tropical climate without such a sharply defined cold dormant season, so cambial activity does not alternate as abruptly, and any rings that do form tend to be faint or hard to distinguish. …

Apply the growth-ring/seasonality link from the previous question to a real geographic (t …

• Attributing the difference to tree species rather than climate, when the same species can show rings in one climate and not another. …