Eco-gardening is at its best in The Monday Garden
March 9, 2003, issue no. 50
Thursday’s snow’s melting; the sparrows say good days are coming. So, here’s a late winter treat: the tree chronicles, “plain as day”, when the trees are bare and it’s warm enough to be outside long enough to read them. It’s not surprising that the lives of trees, the largest and longest-living organisms on earth, resemble multigenerational soap operas, played in extreme slow motion. Tramping in the snow with a friend, along the Mill River at Scalzi Park, I came upon this remarkable tale.
On the left, is a smooth-barked American beech. American Beeches can grow to mammoth size: 90’ high and 60’ wide. It takes almost a human century for a beech to reach adult size. Then they live for hundreds of years. This beech is not yet half-grown.
same view the following October
The huge, rough-barked tree on the right is another American titan: a red oak. These oaks are as tall as American beech but grow faster. They also live a very long time – 300 to 500 years, sometimes. As any squirrel can tell you, red oak acorns are the high-tannic kind that have to be buried for a while to leach out some of the tannin before they’re edible.
The little tree highlighted by the sun that you can glimpse between the beech and oak is our “mystery guest”.
The story: A hundred, perhaps two hundred, years ago, a squirrel buried a red acorn beside the stream and left it there. Why? Who knows the mind of a squirrel? In any case, while humans were converting from horses to cars, the oak grew to be the largest tree along the stream.
Then just decades ago, possibly near the beginning of the Cold War, a tiny beech sprouted in the sun at the base of the oak. Most likely, a far-distant, and equally forgetful, descendent of the oak-planter cashed some beechnuts between the oak’s roots. The little beech prospered by the stream, protected from wind and tramping feet by its tall neighbor.
Being a tree, the young beech couldn’t help but to continue to grow. Unfortunately, the beech became too big to live so close to the oak. Since trees can’t move, these once good neighbors were now struggling for survival.
The taller oak shaded out the beech. The young beech is now slowly dying, from the top down. But, it’s not “the end”. Our mystery guest is a baby beech, spawned from the roots of its dying parent.
And still to come: Will this beech child also die prematurely? Probably not. The oak is also slowly dying, probably from age. However, if the beech-child dies as its parent did, it’ll leave behind another root-baby, yet a little farther away from the oak. Some day, unless the stream changes course or humans intervene, a beech beside this stream could very well grow to be its huge adult self and dominate the site for the next hundred years as the oak does today.
Meanwhile, the furry-faced, gray-tailed instigators are furiously burying acorns all over the park, ensuring themselves plenty of future lunches…. Did you know that it takes over 10,000 acorns to produce one mature oak tree?
__________________________________________________________________
What the readers said:
Oh, I so love the tree story. My kitchen cabinets are made of solid red oak, by the way. Liz (CT)
Great story on the oak and the beech! Makes you think there might be life after another war. Since your last week’s plant email, I’m studying my ferns and my cats, for fronds and shedding respectively. Sure enough there are fronds. The kats always shed, so I’m not 100% convinced on that one yet. Terry (MA)
Great images, great story. Thanks - really- for the weekly sunshine and smile. We all say it over and over again - it is only because we REALLY mean it! Kal (NY)
Well done. Jack (CT)
[Attached is] a picture of the blooming aloe. This specimen is about 15 years old. Bill (CO) [let me know if you want the picture, it’s awesome - Sue]
We just got back from Arizona. l saw one cacti that was 225 years old! Amazing. It can compare to the size of some of the trees! I'm looking forward to spring. I can then davel in my yard. My indoor plants are thriving, but I love the outdoors. Lin (NY)
The cycle of life is very interesting isn’t it? Three to five hundred years for the life of an oak tree, it doesn’t seem fair. I have a friend who collects sap from sugar maples every spring and delights in the time consuming process of producing maple syrup. He, his wife, myself and other friends usually get together for an annual beer and wine party out at the old sugar shack . George (CT)
I'm waiting for the last of the snow to melt. I see many crocus sprouts in front of my building. No blooms yet -- but there is HOPE! Gregg (NY
Photo credits: Sue Sweeney
© Sue Sweeney 2003