The tree that won't die

[blueonblack]

I have a tree on my property that I find inspiring. I don't know what that says about me, that I can be inspired by a tree, you'll have to ask my therapist, but it does. I call it the Tree That Won't Die.

It's a willow of some kind, growing by my pond. It was huge and healthy when we moved here, sadly I have no pics from then. We had a huge ice storm here in 2007, here's what it looked like:

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/blueonblack/Tree/Crushed_800x600.jpg

Pretty flat. Didn't bother it one bit. Come spring you couldn't even tell. Then we had another ice storm in 2008 and that one broke it. The thing looks like it's really three trees growing from the same trunk, joined up to about a foot off the ground. This second storm split them, two are leaning way out over the bank and the third is actually laying horizontally in the pond.

That should have killed it. Nope. The thing adapted, the limbs that were on that trunk that's in the pond now actually bent, their upper portions are growing straight up now, and the thing is as happy as can be growing with the trunk and the bases of many of these branches underwater. The pond is kind of low in these pics, it's usually submerged.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/blueonblack/Tree/P1050331_800x600.jpg

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/blueonblack/Tree/P1050335_800x600.jpg

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/blueonblack/Tree/P1050334_800x600.jpg

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/blueonblack/Tree/P1050336_800x600.jpg


And here are a couple of what have to be its children, as they've come up since we moved there, also happily growing from underwater.

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/blueonblack/Tree/P1050337_800x600.jpg

I don't know what kind of tree this is, the conservation department won't come out and identify it, and it doesn't really matter. This thing is an inspiration, and has been a lesson to both of my children, and will be again when they're old enough to start taking biology lessons. :D

[billygoat333]

haha thats awesome. I have a quaking aspen tree in the front garden of my house that I keep cutting down and it somehow comes back to life. those things are like weeds.

[Oneslowz28]

There is an Oak in my grandmothers pond like that. Winds took it down and the trunk became the base for many limbs growing straight up. The beavers have taken to chopping it up now though so I dunno how long it will survive.

[dr.walrus]

Willows are amazing, you can cut a branch off one and just shove it in the soil and it will grow again

[Airbozo]

I have a tree on my property that I find inspiring. I don't know what that says about me, that I can be inspired by a tree, you'll have to ask my therapist, but it does. I call it the Tree That Won't Die.

Great story! I love willow trees. They can survive quite a bit of stuff. Even lightning.

I am inspired by many of the things growing on my property.
We have a lime tree, I am amazed by. 3 years after we planted it, everything but one tiny branch ( ~2" long) was destroyed by a rare sprinkling of snow and sub zero temperature. The SO bent the branch up and staked it to a stick. 3 years later it is over 6 feet tall and well on it's way to producing limes...




haha thats awesome. I have a quaking aspen tree in the front garden of my house that I keep cutting down and it somehow comes back to life. those things are like weeds.

lol Weeds are no match for redwoods... I have a constant battle to keep new shoots from growing out of control. I have one I mow every other week in the summer and it just will not die... I've taken stump grinders to them, drilled holes and used stump killer, and any other methods. Next rainy season, new shoots.

[Liquid_Scope_99]

Very cool i just wish i was as tenacious as that tree lol

[simon275]

lol Weeds are no match for redwoods... I have a constant battle to keep new shoots from growing out of control. I have one I mow every other week in the summer and it just will not die... I've taken stump grinders to them, drilled holes and used stump killer, and any other methods. Next rainy season, new shoots.

Chlorine or bleach 8)

[dr.walrus]

Chlorine or bleach 8)
2" drillbit and a stick of dynamite?

[Drum Thumper]

lol Weeds are no match for redwoods... I have a constant battle to keep new shoots from growing out of control. I have one I mow every other week in the summer and it just will not die... I've taken stump grinders to them, drilled holes and used stump killer, and any other methods. Next rainy season, new shoots.

I don't know if it would work on Redwoods or not, but we use vinegar to kill out of control chokecherry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_virginiana) bushes. Kills the surround grass too, due to a major increase in acidity in the soil.

[burntheland]

There is a rosebush at my rents that has been, dug up, burned down, salted, douced in gasoline, and shat on......it still grows healthy as ever.

[x88x]

shat on

Well that's not gonna hurt it. :P

[nevermind1534]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1d/Brainthatwouldntdie.jpg

That's what I thought of when I saw the title for this thread.

[blueonblack]

That's what I thought of when I saw the title for this thread.

:D

[CorrodedZoul]

I frankly believe that there's a lesson in everything around... Tenacity, Perseverance and a strong will... that are some of what i can see in that tree...