The Hollywood District is known for its streets lined with mature trees. Unfortunately, not all of these trees are healthy, and the fact that they're large and in close proximity to houses, cars, and people makes the unhealthy trees more of a risk.
This tree immediately jumped out at me as I walked by, due to the huge amount of decay where a very large branch was removed. Upon closer inspection, there were at least two more pockets of decay where branches higher up had been pruned off.
If a tree has a 'problem branch,' it is much better to remove it when the tree is young. The diameter of branch you have to cut is much smaller, meaning the wound is smaller too. Trees never heal, but they do compartmentalize (wall off) damage and decay. A smaller wound means the tree has a better chance at walling it off before organisms find their way in and begin eating away at the tree.
Poor tree!
ReplyDeleteWhat is that bulge of bark ringing the tree, above the removed limb?
At first I wondered if it was a very old walnut tree, with grafting onto a rootstock, but the leaves (as much as I could enlarge the detail) look more like liquidambar?