When 500 years old you reach, look as good you will not!
Today is Arbor Day, and so we’re going to talk about a remarkable tree in Mississippi that just keeps on keeping on.
It’s known as the Friendship Oak, and, for starters, it’s billed as having been planted in the late 1400s.
That would make it older than William Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth I and II, Pocahontas, Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, and Betty White, to name a few.
The tree is on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi in Long Beach, right near the Gulf of Mexico.
It’s 59 feet tall, the trunk has a diameter of 5 feet 9 inches, and the main limbs stretch out more than 60 feet.
It’s said that those who goes under the tree’s branches together will be friends for life.
The Friendship Oak has plenty of its own friends, fans and admirers, all of whom were worried during some recent scares.
The tree has been damaged by massive hurricanes, including Katrina.
And in 2017, arborists had to remove a damaged limb, which, by the way, weighed 16,000 pounds.
There are now steel poles and other supports in place to keep the tree where it’s supposed to be.
Call me maudlin, but given what we’ve all been dealing with lately, it’s nice to think that this tree that’s survived so much is able to keep going, and bringing a little more friendship into the world!
There’s a guy in the UK called Joe Bagley, and you might say every day is Arbor Day for him.
He got interested in house plants when he was 13.
Now, at age 20, his one-bedroom apartment has over 1,400 of them.
It won’t surprise you to learn that he spends most of his free time watering plants.
Friendship Oak (University of Southern Mississippi)
Houseplant Enthusiast Turns Apartment into Urban Jungle with Over 1,400 Potted Plants (Oddity Central)
Friendship Oak photo by wiremommy via Flickr/Creative Commons