Saturday, February 16, 2008

Meet Ronald Rottenwood



Below he seems to be drooling a brown slime flux from a mouth like opening. On warm days he sometimes smelled putrid. This hole was an old wound from losing a major limb.


This slobbering Green Ash, Fraxinus Pennsilvanica, lives on C street in Lincoln Nebraska. He is a male (staminate as apposed to pistillate) ash about 80 years old. I took these photos about two years ago. I have since moved from Lincoln. Is this decrepit fellow still living? He had brown heart rot and the resulting yellow green fungus that appeared in the cool weather of Autumn, hence the affectionate name I had for him, Ronald Rottenwood. Below is a picture of the spongy growths he had growing at his foot. This stuff is called the eccentric name of 'Chicken of the Woods'


Lincoln was much in the habit of cutting down trees that were diseased looking like this. The last year I was there, Ronald shed the leaves on one side of his crown unusually early. It is sad to watch an old venerable tree fade like this.

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