Arboretum - of two minds

The Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center hosted a getting acquainted day this weekend. As part of their activities, they held a first preview of their nascent Arboretum project. The project is well-funded, and has increased their acreage greatly. It now includes a large plot that was held wild until the last couple of years.

Wild it was, apparently a choked landscape of live oaks and Ashe Juniper. The Ashe Juniper is a local, drought-resistant variety native to this part of the countryside. It is called cedar here, though it is not. It is the source of the so-called Cedar Fever, a nasty allergic reaction to its pollen.

We wandered in a group of about thirty people, listening to an explanation of how live oaks and junipers became the large piles of mulch shown here. The red piles are live oak. The grey piles are juniper. They will be used as mulch to protect the roots of oak trees to come.

While there are plenty of oak trees here already, the arboretum will be planting two more sets of oaks. The first planting will be examples of the 55 (that's right, 55) species of oak trees native to Texas.

They will be planted in a large grid, with a meandering path passing through and underneath them. Eventually the team would like to build platforms that reach up to the canopy, so that people can understand what goes on up there in the treetops. That will come later.

The second planting will be a circle of Texas Heroes, the ancient oaks that live all over Texas. Among them will be a shoot grown from the acorns of the Treaty Oak in Austin. This is a 500+ year old tree that was part of a clump of oaks called the Council Oaks. These trees were part of Comanche and Tonkawa rites. The circle will be about 200 feet across. The plantings will start as small seedlings, so this circle will require years to develop in its projected presence. In the meantime, other plantings will keep the area beautiful and the integrity of the circle evident.

As I look at the juxtaposition of the grand old oaks left behind and the 20 foot mounds of trees removed, I ask myself "What is the definition of arboretum?" To me the answer is: an area where you destroy the trees that you don't like so that you can grow trees that you DO like.

It will be a beautiful spot, and worthy of the Wildflower Center, but always a bit sad for me to visit.