Katie's Folly Making the city more beautiful, one (s)pot at a time.

I was incredibly shocked and saddened to see the amount of damage at NYBG by the recent hurricane… perhaps one of the most dramatic examples was of the 100+ year old black oak in the parking lot. It apparently hit the research building, miraculously glancing off and creating just a small dent in the roof line. When it finally came to rest, I was amazed to see how small the root mass was, proportionate to the size and age of the tree. Notoriously persnickety, I was surprised to see that it had taken root against a major rock formation – thus not allowing it to drive down a tap root. Instead, a network of fairly small roots had fanned out and filled the limitations of the space the rock allowed the tree. It’s incredible that the tree had grown to the size and age that it had; it probably should have fallen down many years ago.