Walking Tree

Who ever said tree can't walk? This image isn't a group of trees but one single tree that is expanding. It is a Cypress, in Albury Park, which I sneaked back to photograph today. The mother plant, on the left, has put out branches that have touched the ground and rooted to become genetic copies of itself. You can clearly see the branches on the right that are rooting and forming what will be further extensions of the original plant. The second 'tree' was a branch which has now grown to adulthood, with it's body now submerged under the soil, and difficult to associate as an offspring from it's mother. One single tree can, by this method, cover an immense distance and live for many thousands of years.

This tree, in the scheme of ages, is young. I don't have access to data but I imagine the mother plant to be around 60 years of age. If left to it's own devises, given that it has already 'walked' 20 feet, how far will it travel in the next couple of centuries? The original seedling may die but the plant will continue to live well into the future by walking to a situation which is more convenient.

Did you believe that a tree is inanimate? Think again.

I'll come back to yew trees in the future. My question to you now is... did they plant a Yew tree in the church yard or the church beside a Yew?