Last Word on Wood

Tree saves 150 People from death

Trees sometimes save lives. Take for example a large 300-year-old tamarind tree in the grounds of the Osmania General Hospital in Hyderabad, India.  In 1908 there was a devastating flood in the town when the Musi river rose 16 feet in 3 hours.  The resulting flood eventually caused around 15,000 deaths, destroyed more than 19,000 homes and made one-quarter of the entire city’s population homeless.  A famous Urdu poet, Amjad Hyderabadi, saved his life by hanging on to the branches of the large tamarind tree in the hospital grounds. Amjad lost his mother, wife and daughter who were drowned in the deluge. He was one of 150 people who managed to survive by clinging to this particular tree for two days.  It still stands to this day and its role in saving so many lives is still celebrated annually.

Some trees are just so historic and productive. 

The oldest known olive tree in the world is found in Crete, Greece. This ancient Olive Tree of Vouves (Elia Vouvon) still produces olives. There are only seven olive trees in the Mediterranean which are thought to be over 2,000 years old. Although the exact age of the Olive Tree of Vouves cannot be verified, scientists from the University of Crete have estimated it to be 4,000 years old! Branches from this tree were used to weave victors' wreaths for the winners of the 2004 Athens Olympics and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  The use of an olive branch to symbolize peace is even earlier than ancient Greek mythology as it had already appeared centuries earlier in Ancient Egypt as a symbol of peace. It also has its place in the Old Testament of the Bible.  It was an olive branch (or leaf, depending on the translation) which was brought back to Noah by a dove to demonstrate that the flood was over (Book of Genesis, 8:11).  So, it has been a positive symbol of peace in many cultures for many millennia.

The oldest Individual Trees of All

Two of the oldest trees in the world are the Great Basin bristlecone pine (5,062 years old) and Methuselah (4,845 years old), both of which are from the same species and live in California’s White Mountains.  Sad note: there was an even older specimen however in 1964, a certain Donal Rusk Currey killed it. To this day, there has still never been an older tree discovered. Basically, Currey got his tree corer so stuck in the tree that it wouldn’t come out.  An unwitting park ranger helped him by cutting the tree down, to free the instrument, and later Currey began to count the tree rings. Eventually, he realised to his horror that the tree he had just felled was greater than 5,000 years old – the oldest living tree ever recorded.  It is no wonder that the location of these old trees in California is kept secret to protect them!  There is something horrific about killing a majestic living organism that existed before the pyramids were even built.

Trees also warn their neighbours

When a giraffe eats an acacia tree the leaves of the tree being eaten emit ethylene gas to warn other trees. This gas triggers them to pump tannins into their own leaves.  This toxin can kill large herbivores and serves to protect the nearby acacia trees. 

Trees keep injured neighbour alive!

In New Zealand, there is a kauri tree stump (Agathis australis) that should be dead. However, it is very much alive due to the root systems of surrounding trees.  These have kept the stump on life support by sharing water and nutrients.

Scientists have long suspected such sharing networks exist but proving such resource transfers take place has been difficult.   Researchers found the stump in a rainforest in the Waitakere Ranges on New Zealand’s North Island. Even though the stump was missing branches and leaves it was very much alive. They found that the surrounding kauri trees were supplying the stump with a lifeline of sap and water through their roots connecting with the stump roots.  Many trees – nearly 150 species-form roots with other trees of the same species to exchange water and nutrients. Foresters have reported living stumps as far back as the 1800s, but this is one of the first studies of how they survive.

The finding adds to a growing understanding that trees and other organisms can work together for the benefit of a forest.  Given that trees do it, surely, we humans need to learn from them!
Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2211209-tree-stumps-that-should-be-dead-can-be-kept-alive-by-nearby-trees/#ixzz6Q2T2LQB5

Making clones to live longer!

When we talk about age and allow clones to be included, then all the above-mentioned trees are mere youngsters. Pando is a clonal colony of an individual male quaking aspen determined to be a single living organism by identical genetic markers and assumed to have one massive underground root system. It is found in Fishlake National Forest in south-central Utah, United States. The root system of Pando, at an estimated 80,000 years old, is among the oldest known living organisms we know.

Sadly, Pando is currently thought to be dying. Though the exact reasons are not known, it is thought to be a combination of factors.  It has stopped growing for the last 30-40 years and a study in October 2018 concluded that human interference was named as the primary cause of its demise.  I don’t know why this seems so horrific but it does.  The world's most massive and oldest organism is being killed and we seem to be responsible.

Conclusion 

I suspect like me you have a growing respect for trees and a growing suspicion we should learn from them and certainly stop destroying these precious lungs of our planet.  Their contribution to neighbourhoods around them and their very presence on this planet over the millennium has always served to enrich and beautify.  Would that we could aspire to follow their example.  Our connection to this natural world is a reality that we must respect and preserve not abuse.

"..ye walk on My earth complacent and self-satisfied, heedless that My earth is weary of you.."

The Hidden Words, Bahá’u’lláh

The Cedar Trees of Lebanon, useful, aromatic and so historic

Trees are pretty epic. Take for example the ‘Cedars of God’. This refers to cedar trees in the mountains of northern Lebanon. They are actually mentioned in the Bible 75 times. The ancient Egyptians even used the resin from cedar trees in the mummification process. Herodotus (484 –425 BC) and later Pliny the Elder (AD 23/24–79) had claimed that they did but this had been contested by many. It took just 2,000 years to prove that the pharaohs had indeed used cedar oil as the ideal embalming fluid just as Pliny and Herodotus had claimed. Scientists from Munich and Tübingen reported in Nature in 2003 that they had analysed embalming material from 1500 BC, found at Deir-el-Bahari in Egypt and cedar oil was the choice of embalming fluid.

These Lebanese cedar trees are particularly aromatic and very resistant to decay and bugs. King David (roughly 1010-970 BC) used cedarwood in building his palace.  (2 Samuel 5:11)

King Solomon (970–931 BC), the tenth son of King David, also used the Lebanon cedar trees in the construction of the first temple in Jerusalem.  In fact, even the altar within the temple which supported the Ark of the Covenant was reported to be made of this cedarwood. 

"Behold, I will liken you to a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches and forest shade"

(Ezekiel 31:3)

  

It occurs most abundantly at altitudes of 1,300 to 3,000 m and is even used in medicine. Cedarwood oil has anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties.  Hebrew priests were ordered by Moses (roughly 1391 BC - 1271 BC) to use the bark of the Lebanon cedar in the treatment of leprosy. Leviticus 14:1–4

Isaiah, born in the 8^th century BC, the Hebrew prophet used the Lebanon cedar as a metaphor for the pride of the world, with the tree explicitly mentioned as a symbol of the righteous.

“The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon” Psalm 92:12

This area of Lebanon, high in the mountains, used to be covered in a vast forest of cedar trees but the trees of Lebanon have suffered a period of destruction that pains the heart and is recorded in the journals of travellers over the years.

Pierre Belon visited the area in 1550, making him the first modern traveller to identify the Cedars of God in his ‘’ Observations’’. He counted 28 trees and wrote

“At a considerable height up the mountains the traveller arrives at the Monastery of the Virgin Mary, which is situated in the valley. Thence proceeding four miles up the mountain, he will arrive at the cedars, the Maronites or the monks acting as guides. The cedars stand in a valley, and not on top of the mountain, and they are supposed to amount to 28 in number.."

Leonhard Rauwolf followed in 1573-75, could only find 24 trees:

Jean de Thévenot counted 23 trees in 1655

Laurent d'Arvieux in 1660 counted 20 trees

Henry Maundrell in 1697 counted 16 trees of the “very old” type

Given this quick and steady decimation concern for the protection of the biblical "cedars of God" grew and in 1876, the 102-hectare (250-acre) grove was surrounded by a high stone wall, paid for by Queen Victoria, to protect saplings from browsing by goats.  However, this did not stop the British using the cedars in building railways.

In the Sumerian versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh  (1800 BC)  the earliest surviving great work of literature and the second oldest religious text, after the Pyramid Texts, the hero in the poem cuts down the cedars of Lebanon.   Strange that this piece of famous literature had 3500 years previously hinted at the destruction that would take place here!

  

Fortunately, the "Committee of the Friends of the Cedar Forest" initiated a reforestation program in 1985. These efforts will take decades due to the slow growth of cedars.  It is hoped these historical trees will be allowed to multiple and hopefully enthrall many future generations with their splendid snowy coverings high in the mountains.  They have so far planted 40,000 cedar trees so things are looking hopeful. Something so beautiful that has been treasured for so long, by so many surely deserves to be preserved.

"Regard thou faith as a tree. Its fruits, leaves, boughs and branches are, and have ever been, trustworthiness, truthfulness, uprightness and forbearance." 

Baháʼí Writings

PS apologies for dates as there is a wide discrepancy in accepted dates given - but they give a ballpark figure which for me is valuable.

PPS not at all recommending cedar oil for leprosy. But in old days being able to slap on something that would reduce inflammation/bacteria for seven days probably meant a lot that would have been considered unclean/lepers were given the all-clear and allowed to rejoin their family and community.

What trees teach us about hope and resilience

About hope in the face of disaster and death

On August 6, 1945, a 9,000 pound U-235 bomb was dropped over the city of Hiroshima. The nuclear bomb exploded destroying five square miles of the city. Ninety per cent of the city was destroyed and 80,000 people died immediately. Thousands more died later.

This explosion had a devastating impact on humans and even buildings.  Sometimes the two merged when humans were so powerfully obliterated by the explosion that the only visible remains of such individuals were a shadow on a nearby wall.  Most of us are familiar with those scenes of disaster.  Less well known are the “survivors”, in particular the trees, shrubs and groves that managed to survive that horrific day. 

170 trees survived in 55 locations, within about 1¼ miles of ground zero when most of the other trees and vegetation were destroyed. Over the ensuing years, the City of Hiroshima, tree experts, and citizen volunteers have lovingly tended the trees that survived the bomb. Each bears a nameplate reading Hibakujumoku  (survivor tree).

Some trees looked scorched beyond survival but despite retaining the lifelong scars of the blast on their bark managed miraculously to stay alive.  These “survivors” have become a reminder of the spirit of Hiroshima.  Indeed, these damaged trees have become perversely representatives of peace.  Seeds from these survivors have been posted to countries all around the world and been planted to encourage the importance of peace and remind all nations of the deadly consequences of war.

Over 2000 years of Resilience bears fruit

Around 1963-1965, excavations at Herod the Great's palace on Masada, Israel, revealed a store of date palm seeds perfectly preserved in an ancient jar. These had been stored in a very dry and sheltered environment for centuries. In fact, Radiocarbon dating at the University of Zurich indicated that the seeds dated from between 155 BC to 64 AD. Fascinating to think that these seeds were well over 2000 years old.  The story goes cold for a period (literally) as these ancient seeds were held in storage for 40 years at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan.  The story could have ended here with seeds stored safely after two millennia.

This all changed in 2005, when Dr. Elaine Solowey from the Center for Sustainable Agriculture at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies managed to sprout several seeds.  Three of these seeds were subsequently planted at Ketura, in southern Israel.  Unbelievably, eight weeks later, one of the seeds had sprouted, and by June 2008, the tree had nearly a dozen fronds and was nearly 4 ft 7 in tall. By the summer of 2010, the sapling stood about 6 ft 7 in tall.  The plant was given the name "Methuselah" after the longest-lived person listed in the Bible.  It is the only living Judean date palm in the world as these species have been extinct for over 800 years.

In 2005, there was hope that the successful sprouted seed would turn out to be female, for which there was a 50% chance, as then it could give fruit.  As one of the researchers pointed out, “if it's a male, it will just be a curiosity."  

  

The story which started over two millennia earlier in an ancient palace was ruined in March 2011 when Methuselah flowered in March 2011 and despite all the excitement turned out to be male!  At this point, it must have seemed so unfair.  Seeds happened to be kept in a jar, in perfectly dry circumstances for two thousand years in an ancient palace, rescued and stored for forty years in cold storage in university and then brought back to life in a single successful plant which turns out to be male and incapable of fruiting.  If you were writing the script you would have wished a better ending!  However, the story does not end there.  In 2012, someone came up with a plan.  They want to crossbreed the palm with its closest existing relative the Hayani date from Egypt in the hope of generating fruit by 2022. In 2015, Methuselah produced pollen that has successfully pollinated female date palms.

As of 2019, additional Judean date palm seeds have been grown. Thirty-two seeds from locations in the Dead Sea area were planted, and six saplings have survived. Because several seedlings are female, it is hoped that it will be possible to pollinate one or more of the female Judean date palms with the pollen from Methuselah.

This ancient seed could have real practical implications for us all in the future. Sarah Sallon, the head of the project, wants to see if the ancient tree has any unique medicinal properties no longer found in today's date palm varieties. "The Judean date was used for all kinds of things from fertility, to aphrodisiacs, against infections, against tumours," she said. Now, wouldn’t that be the perfect end to a very old and odd story?

"Man is like unto a tree. If he be adorned with fruit, he hath been and will ever be worthy of praise and commendation. Otherwise a fruitless tree is but fit for fire. The fruits of the human tree are exquisite, highly desired and dearly cherished. Among them are upright character, virtuous deeds and a goodly utterance."

Bahá’í Writings