fairy ring
n.— «Evidence of logging is best visualized by the way redwoods grow in rings, sometimes referred to as “fairy rings.” These are caused by the resprouts that grow around a stump. You can get a sense of how big the original tree was by measuring the inside of the fairy ring.» —“Redwood’s amazing biology makes them survivors” by Joe Rigney Santa Cruz Sentinel (California) July 22, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
Enthusiastic book recommendations! Martha’s savoring the biography of Alexander von Humboldt, the 19th-century explorer, polymath, and naturalist who revolutionized our understanding of nature and predicted the effects of human activity on...