Re: Oak
"Sean A. O'Hara" wrote:
>
> At 04:39 PM 1/13/00 +0100, Niccolo' Segato wrote:
>
> > I don't exactly know if this is the right place to ask a question, I
> > don't have much familiarity wih internet-surfing. Anyway I'll give
> > it a try.
> > My father has restored a house in the umbrian countryside. During
> > the restoration works, a big oak (Quercus robur) has been covered by
> > 1.5 meters of clayey earth -or better, its trunk has been covered
> > for 1,5m- and has been left in this condition for the last 3 years,
> > because the new assessment of the garden was thought to be higher
> > than before. Can this be cause of suffering or even death for the
> > plant?
Hi Niccolo,
I can't answer in respect of oaks. Sean O'Hara seems to have covered
this very well, and his answer is that it is bad for oaks.
However I thought that I would just add that different species can
sometimes tolerate this. We have an example within ten miles of our
home. We live in an area of deep river valleys, and the next one to the
east of us was heavily shaken by a big (8 Richter) earthquake in 1855
which caused big landslides to come down the sides of the valley.
We have visited a place where one of these slides came down and buried
the lower trunks of a group of NZ native beech trees (Nothofagus sp).
Smaller ones were broken off or crushed down and killed, but bigger ones
were able to withstand the torrent of rocks and earth, although scars
can be seen on the uphill sides of some of them to this day. Prodding
with thin steel rods around the bases of these trees (which can be
easily recognised because there is no flare of the trunk at ground
level) it has been established that the original ground surface lies
some 8-12 feet below the modern surface, yet these trees have survived
for 145 years, apparently unharmed apart from the odd scars of impact.
Tony
--
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata, New Zealand. (on the "Ring of Fire" in the SW Pacific).
Lat. 41:16S Long. 174:58E. Climate: Mediterranean/Temperate
