I often admire the northern red oak that is sandwiched between two apartment buildings in my neighborhood. It stands alone, without other trees in the immediate vicinity. It’s as if it’s been sentenced to life in prison in solitary confinement.
But even in isolation, this oak is magnificent. It’s lucky because nothing blocks its southern exposure; thus for much of the year, the tree is bathed in sunshine. Its full crown of branches and leaves shades the surrounding buildings and captures enough of the sky to allow for robust photosynthesis. The sun fostered the tree’s fast upward growth and nourishes its roots.
Red Oaks in Nature
Red oaks are one of the most common trees in the Northeast. They can live 200-300 years. I’m fairly sure this red oak is over 100. It’s approximately 80 feet tall, and its circumference near its base is over 12 feet. It was probably a young but established tree when the original apartment buildings in the area were erected in the 1930s.
In the wild, red oaks are an important source of food and shelter for over 500 different species of wildlife. Without a doubt our glorious tree hosts numerous urban species that mostly go unnoticed by my neighbors as they rush to catch the Bronxville train to Manhattan. In most years, the tree’s plentiful acorns scatter on the ground, but the landscapers and squirrels quickly carry them off before they have a chance to grow.
Fire Destroyed One Building
In 2019, a five-alarm fire destroyed the apartment building to the east of the tree. When the burned-out structure was finally torn down in 2022, the tree was liberated from its incarceration.
People love to think of trees and animals as having human characteristics, especially intelligence. I admit to having anthropomorphized this tree. I wish I could have a conversation with it to learn from its own perspective what its life has been like. How did it adapt to and then thrive in such a confined space? What keeps it going? And what does it think about the closed-off world it inhabits? I would also like know how it felt when it was liberated from its imprisonment after the burnt building was leveled, and then what it felt like to be reimprisoned once a replacement apartment building bricked it back in. I suspect it’s rather stoical.
Life underground
In recent years scientists have discovered that trees have a complex underground relationship to other trees through the mycorrhizal network (a.k.a mushroom network) that connects them. Perhaps our tree has a rich subterranean life, and that is all it needs.
This story is the third in a bimonthly series about trees in Yonkers. If any reader knows of a particular tree that they feel is worthy of an exposé, please contact me through the Yonkers Ledger at phil.zisman@theyonkersledger.com
