There is not a consensus
on how many countries exist in the world, with some counts ranging
from 193 (UN members) to 197. The problematic issues are whether an
entity such as Taiwan is independent
or a part of grabbing mainland China, or whether Kosovo is an
independent nation, as considered so
by the USA and other Western nations, or not
by the likes of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea – all
asshole countries, aren’t they? – or merely a province of Serbia.
Despite dubious Chinese “historical” justification, Tibet is not
“part” of China, but rather an independent country that happens
to currently be under the heel of Han domination. And speaking of
“historical,” shouldn’t we consider the Navaho and Nez Perce
and other Native American nations as independent countries too?
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| Pseudotsuga menziesii |
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| Tsuga heterophylla |
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| Tsuga canadensis |
A couple of weeks ago I
listed America’s “State” trees, where Oregon “decided” on
the “Douglas fir,” Pseudotsuga menziesii, Washington chose the
“Western hemlock,” Tsuga heterophylla, and Pennsylvania went with
the “Eastern hemlock,” Tsuga canadensis etc. I suppose some
grandstanding politician made a tree proposal and it was voted aye
and thus it became so. What do you think is the National tree of the
United States? Stop…and think it over first. Stop, think.
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| Quercus |
The process of deciding
seemed quite democratic: The National Arbor Day Foundation conducted
a poll in 2001 and the oak, and all of the American species of the
genus Quercus, was the winner, and collectively it is considered The
Mighty Oak. Of course the process involved
further BS, and five years later it took a Congressional passage and
a Presidential signing to become official. I didn’t vote – I
didn’t know how to – but I don’t have a problem with The Mighty
Oak, and Oregon is home to a few Quercus species, with Q. garryana
being the most notable.
Acer saccharum
Likewise, Canada goes with
a conglomerate, and not surprising the choice is the maple genus
Acer, but we all
suspect the “Sugar maple,” Acer saccharum is the prototype.
Remember that a few American states proclaimed Acer saccharum to be
their state tree as well. The species ranges in Canada from Nova
Scotia all the way west to Manitoba, and in the USA from Minnesota
eastward to the Atlantic Ocean. Besides being a famous source of
maple syrup, horticulturally it is prized for brilliant autumn
foliage, and a sizeable tourist industry has been based on it in the
Northeast. They are spectacular in Oregon at the Flora Wonder
Arboretum, but sadly in gloomy England they are reportedly (Peter
Gregory) not reliable for noteworthy autumn color.
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| Taxodium mucronatum |
How about Mexico – which
tree do you think? There could be 100 valid choices I suppose but
amazingly the designation is based on a solo specimen of Taxodium
mucronatum, the “Ahuehuete,” considered the world’s champion
tree in circumference. I have seen this wonderous specimen in Oaxaca,
and it was on my list of the top ten accomplishments in my life
before I checked out. Only marriage to Haruko and the birth of my
five children rank ahead of it. Honestly, the Taxodium amazed me more
than the Grand Canyon or standing at the foot of Mount Everest. The
Arbol del Tule is
located on church grounds in the center of Santa Maria del Tule, and
is commonly known as the “Montezuma cypress” with Ahuehuete
meaning “old man of the water” in the Nahuatl language. It is
slightly more round (119 feet) than tall and is thought to be about
2,000 years old. If you believe the local legend, the tree was
planted by a priest of the Aztec storm god, Huracan,
who also presided as a Mayan diety and was present at all three
attempts to create humanity under the direction of Kukulkan
(known by the Aztec name Quetzalcoatl).
So, take that, Darwin!
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| Quercus robur |
I think the most common
country-shared national tree – not necessarily preferred by me, but
by the dignitaries of various European countries – is Quercus
robur, the “English oak.” Obviously it is indigenous to the B.
Isles and is also considered the Royal Oak,
but countries flung far-afield from each other such as Croatia,
Denmark, Estonia, probably Germany (since they just select “oak”),
Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, and Serbia. (for an
undesignated species of oak), all foremost champion Quercus robur.
No! – not Q. rubra (the American “Red oak”) which I have no
trouble differentiating from Q. robur – but we should agree that
the novice might have some confusion trying to figure out the
difference between the two similar-sounding specific epithets.
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| Olea europaea |
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| Olive branch |
Also highly sought for
national tree preference is Olea europaea, the “Olive tree,” which
is native to the Mediterranean, Africa, southern Asia, and
Australasia. It is an evergreen tree or shrub and I saw plantations
of them in Greece where I explored the countryside by car in the
early 1970s. The four most memorable occurrences for me at that time
was feta-cheese salads, tobacco fields, olive orchards and hitch
hiking lesbians. I also grew sick of baklava, and have never been
able to eat the honey-drenched paper-thin dough since my Grecian
fling. As far as the lesbian pairs are concerned: one can be
alluringly attractive, but her partner always seems to sport
dark-cropped hair and a mustache – a deal breaker for me. Well, you
don’t care about those details, but the European olive is the
national tree of Albania, Greece, Israel and Palestine. Extending
the olive branch is a symbol of peace in
modern Europe and also in the Arab world, but it originated first in
Ancient Egypt before arriving in Ancient Greece, one of the few
examples where the Greeks were not original. Eventually, in Greek
tradition, a hiketeria
was an olive branch held by supplicants to acknowledge their
inferiority when approaching persons of greater status or power.
Pinus sylvestris
Pinus sylvestris is
commonly known as the “Scot’s pine,” so its not surprising to
learn that it’s the national tree of Scotland. And once you
encounter a few Scotsmen in your life you’re not surprised that the
country’s national flower is a thistle, as the northern tribe can
be rather prickly to deal with. Sylvestris
– meaning “of the forest” – is the only pine native to
Britain, and while once common in England and Wales, now the only
wild stands can be found in northern Scotland. I’ve purchased a
couple hundred thousand P. sylvestris seedlings in my career as it
makes a suitable rootstock for most two-needled pine cultivars. It is
adaptable to container culture and it makes a decent rootstock for
harvesting ball-and-burlap trees from the field. Since the species is
native to northern Europe, all the way to Asia, there exists a number
of geographical varieties,
and growers develop a preference for attributes such as hardiness, or
best winter color retention, or for the most fibrous root system etc.
Ceroxylon quindiuense
A fun tree that is the
symbol of Columbia is Ceroxylon quindiuense, but don’t feel bad if
you’ve never of it because when I sent the photos above (a dozen
years ago) to the late tree expert, Dick van Hoey Smith of Arboretum
Trompenburg, he was baffled by it’s identity. Well, it’s a
non-hardy palm so of course he didn’t know it. I encountered it at
the Strybing Arboretum of San Francisco and I was certainly taken
with the whimsical nature of the trunk. The related species hexandrum
was growing nearby, also barber pole-like but not quite as
exaggerated. Of course the trunk markings are the result of excising
leaf fronds which is common with palms. The “Andean Wax Palm” is
native to montane forests of Columbia and Peru and can reach an
astounding 200’ tall. The genus name is derived from Latin cera
for “wax” and Greek xulon
for “wood.” In the past the stem wax of C. quindiusense was used
for making candles, but later was replaced with artificial wax or by
the arrival of electricity. Everything you could ever want to know
about the genus can be found in Phytotaxa
34, A Revision of the Andean Wax Palms,
Ceroxylon (Arecaceae) by Maria Jose Santin
and Gloria Galeano. The genus is of particular interest to me because
specimens dotted the landscape in Peru when I visited in the early
1970’s and I guess I wasn’t expecting to see tall palms in the
Andean foothills.
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| Prunus serrulata |
The national tree of Japan
is the “Flowering cherry,” Prunus serrulata, locally known as the
tai haku. It is also
called the “hill cherry” and is native to China, Japan, Korea and
India and the flowers can range from white to pink. The fruits
(Sakuranbo) are small
and bitter and are not eaten unless processed as a preserve, and it’s
a taste my wife doesn’t like, but a snappy delicacy to me.
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| Podocarpus latifolius |
I was
initially surprised that the National tree of South Africa –
Podocarpus latifolius – is not mentioned in either Hillier (2014),
nor in Rushforth’s Conifers,
but I suppose the reason is that the latifolia species (meaning
broad-leaved) is not sufficiently hardy for the British Isles (only
to 25-30F). Also known as the “yellowwood,” it is a slow-growing
evergreen that can nevertheless reach 100 ft. tall in its natural
habitat. The foliage appears gray from a distance, but the
bluish-gray needles are coated with a powder, and as we saw in the
recent Flora Wonder Blog post, ‘Glauca’,
the covering can be rubbed off which will expose the underlying green
leaves. If I remember correctly, the photo above was taken at the Los
Angeles Arboretum, but unfortunately I didn’t document the
beautiful trunk with its peeling bark. The species is dioecious, with
male and female cones on separate plants, so you can see that the
above specimen is female. The male cones resemble catkins which is
adapted for wind pollination. My photo was taken in spring, but the
female’s round, gray-blue seeds mature to purple in winter. I
actually grew one indoors as a “house-plant” when I was young,
but I don’t remember what happened to it.
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| Betula pendula |
Finland chose as its
National tree the “Silver birch,” Betula pendula, but the species
is no one’s favorite tree. The bark just isn’t white enough like
with B. jacquemontii, or with some of the other Asian species. Plus,
it can cover your car or sidewalk with sticky aphid juice. The bugs
excrete the honeydew as they move around the foliage which can lead
to gray-black mold on the leaves. One of the first projects when I
bought the Buchholz Nursery property was to remove a Betula pendula
next to the back door due to the sticky situation, plus the
plant-idiot placed it atop the house’s septic system. Contrarion
ex-wife complained that I was a brutal floral chauvinist to edit the
innocent tree… when it meant no harm, but I was dutifully
preventing thousands of dollars of repair later. I admit, though,
that the silhouette of a B. pendula in the dormant season can be a
source of wonder, and the only requirement is that it is planted a
safe distance from the house.
Betula pendula 'Dalecarlica'
The Swedes take the Silver
birch (AKA “Lady of the Woods”) a step
further for their National tree by choosing the cultivar
‘Dalecarlica’, and I used to have one on the property… but no
more. The problem was that initially – and still to this day – I
underestimate a tree’s vigor, and frankly the rambunctious birch
threatened some more important and commercially viable species. It’s
sad when a plant collection, an arboretum
(such as the Flora Wonder), must choose to keep
or delete based upon
commercial performance instead of leaving all in place and in peace.
My life includes a lot of decisions about the killing
or keeping of living
creatures, and I must be certain and decisive. ‘Dalecarlica’
displays deeply-cut leaves and was originally found in Sweden in 1767
in the province of Darlana, hence the cultivar name. These
dissected-leaved forms can occasionally be found in the wild, but
it’s interesting that a form
or a cultivar can
become the National tree of a country.
Ginkgo biloba
Not surprisingly Ginkgo
biloba is the National tree of China, and while very old specimens
can be found in Japan and Korea, everyone acknowledges that China is
the origin. On the other hand I have a Ginko adiantoides fossil from
Morton County, North Dakota which is aged from the Paleocene Epoch
(56-66 million years ago). The Ginko is considered a “living
fossil” and has remained basically unchanged for over 200 millions
years, and it’s amazing to consider that it coexisted with the
dinosaurs. It is thought that Ginkgo was first cultivated about 1,000
years ago in China, and most likely for it’s nuts. An abundance of
literature exists in China prior to a thousand years ago, and nowhere
is Ginkgo mentioned. The first Westerner to document it was Engelbert
Kaempfer who was stationed in southern Japan while employed with the
Dutch East India Company. The first trees to be introduced to Europe
was somewhere between the 1730’s and 1750’s. When my daughter H.
was barely over two years old she was walking between her mother and
me on a sidewalk in Portland. She stopped, pointed at a single leaf
and said (in her cute baby voice), “Ginkgo biloba.” I looked up,
and sure enough there were just a few leaves clinging at the end of
autumn on a Ginkgo biloba tree. Her mother had taught her plant names
as they went for outings in the Flora Wonder Arboretum, and ginkgo
was the first tree she learned to identify.
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| Tree of Life |
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| Saint Peter: Apostle and First Pope |
Physically, The Vatican is the
smallest nation on earth with an area of 110 acres and a
population of about 1,000. The name comes from an Etruscan
settlement, Vatica,
located in an area called Ager Vaticanus
for “Vatican territory,” a marshy area on the west bank of the
Tiber across from the city of Rome. Some would argue that the swamp
was never fully drained, at least morally. I’ve never been there,
so I don’t know if there’s even one tree on the grounds, but I
suppose if they had a National tree it would be the “Tree of Life.”
The tree first appears in Genesis 2:9 and 3:22-24, and it is the
source of eternal
life, then it reappears in the Book of Revelation. Pope Benedict XVI
(1927-) said that the cross is the “true tree of life,” while
earlier Augustine of Hippo (354-430) said that the tree of life is
Christ. Well, other cultures, including pre-Columbian America, had
their tree of life too, or tree of the world. The aforementioned Tule
tree of Aztec mythology is associated with the actual behemoth
Taxodium in Oaxaca, Mexico.
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| Quercus garryana |
The word “tree” is
derived from Greek drys-drees,
from the same root as Druid and endure, and it referred in ancient
times to the oak. I don’t know if it’s a particular species or
any Mediterranean oak. There are about 600 species of Quercus in the
world, and those with evergreen foliage are known as “live oaks,”
compared to the deciduous Q. garryana that dominates my front lawn.
However, even when dormant it still radiates life: the Buchholz
family’s National tree.
