Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- identity_of_trees_walks [2014-08-28 15:43] – [*Wild chestnut] rasa
+++ identity_of_trees_walks [2014-08-28 20:00] (current) – [* Plane, plataan, platane, Platanus – all together they form the Brussels' Court of Peace] rasa
@@ Line 473: / Line 473: @@
 People moan about it, are afraid of the consequences it will have on their own lifes. But in fact, granting trees their authority again is not difficult at all. Just learn to reconnect to the energy of the tree, listen to the tree, and you will discover inside your soul all the knowledge, experience, ideas and values that are necessary to melt anxiousness, greediness, hurry, control and all other tools that cut trees out of power.
-So put in your earplugs, breathe deeply, and slowly put one foot in front of the other. At La Bourse you will meet Prutske, our most legendary co-citizen.
+// So put in your earplugs, breathe deeply, and slowly put one foot in front of the other. At La Bourse you will meet Prutske, our most legendary co-citizen. //
@@ Line 487: / Line 487: @@
-==== * Elms ====
+Please meet Prutske, the only tree we found with a real name!
+And what a name.
+Prutske is the Flemish Brussels word for 'a tiny little thing of no value'. The name appears in the database of remarkable trees [[http://bomen-inventaris.irisnet.be/arbre/Brussel_Beursplein_Beursplein/990/]], an initiative of the Heritage department of the Brussels Capital Region.
+If anyone knows the story of how this name was given, please contact bxl@fo.am!
+Prutske has been registered since 2002, but we don't know his exact age.
+The database of Remarkable Trees in Brussels has no legal value yet. The trees listed in here can be added by anyone, if only some criteria are respected.
+The best way to greet Prutske is to take away some of the garbage that his roots seem to collect easily. Prutske is said to be in weak condition. So any love you can give in any form will be highly appreciated.
+So what makes Prutske a remarkable tree?
+First of all, Prutske is a rare migrant. His origins lie near the Mediterranean. A fig tree can only survive in a sunny area and when it is protected from the wind. The presence of this fig tree in the middle of the city centre can be called highly unsuspected and surprising. Secondly, following the database, it is the 3rd biggest fig tree of its species in the Brussels Region. And finally, you can observe fruits – sometimes dry – all year long. Prutske must be a cultivated fig tree, because in order to produce fruits, a fig tree needs the help of the fig wasp, a tiny wasp that cannot survive in our regions.
+The symbiotical story of the wasp and the fig tree is beautifully portrayed in The Queen of Trees, Deeble & Stone, 2005. Watch on youtube [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy86ak2fQJM]].
+// While you walk to the next tree, try to think of the kind of relationships and networks trees maintain in the city. It is very different to the networks of trees in the forest. But after all, just like human beings, trees are at the same time needed and needy. //
+==== * White Elms, Amerikaanse Iep, Ormes d'Amérique, Ulmus americana ====
-the twins
 {{:imag1565.jpg?200|}}
-==== *Wild chestnut ====
-{{:paardenkastanje.jpg?200|}}
-Leopold
+At the corner of the Rue de Laeken and the rue des Augustins you can greet the twins, two elms that are registered on the conservation list of the Brussels Region since 2006. Elms are known to be city trees. Amsterdam is full of them. They can live for several hundred years.
+// You can get to know these elms by watching closely for five minutes the silhouettes of their crowns against the clouds. //
+They used to be three, a little sisterhood. The third was removed for security reasons in 2007. The reason is not clear to us yet. Maybe it was affected by the Dutch elm disease. This disease is caused by a member of the sac fungi (Ascomycota) and is spread by the elm bark beetle. Although believed to be originally native to Asia, the disease has been accidentally introduced into America and Europe, where it has devastated native populations of elms which had not had the opportunity to evolve resistance to the disease. The only solution is to cut the ill tree and burn it. In the long term they inject vaccins and cultivate hybrid elms.
+All in all, these two elms resisted to long term pollution and illnesses. There heighth, their beauty and their scarcity have brought them to the Brussels Region Government, who voted on the 17th January 2008 for their protection. Looking at what this means, one could say that all trees of Brussels should be on that list:
+a) It is prohibited to use, store or produce substances that can cause damage to the development and the growth of the trees, the fauna and flora and the water quality.
+b) It is prohibited to place advertising panels.
+c) It is prohibitied to light a fire.
+d) It is prohibited to leave or store materials, rubble, waste, garbage and rubbish of any kind.
+e) Normal maintenance of the tree (cutting dead or broken branches, taking care of wounds) is compulsory. One defines normal maintenance by the size of the broken or damaged branches whose section diameter in their insertion is not larger than 12cm.
+f) It is prohibited to trench or highten the soil.
+Read the full document (in Fr/Nl): [[http://www.monument.irisnet.be/images/REGISTRE/AG/042_002.pdf]]
+Link to the database: [[http://bomen-inventaris.irisnet.be/arbres/Brussel_Augustijnenstraat__4/681/]]
+Apart from being remarkable or preserved a tree can also be protected in the Brussels Region. There is only one such tree, a Lebanon cedar in the Avenue Palmerstonlaan. This is the only tree that cannot be cut without public permission and has to be replaced when it dies.
+Remember that in German mythology our genealogy goes back to two trees. The first woman was created from the wood of an elm, the first man from the wood of an ash.
+// When you walk on, we invite you to think of the fact that many trees live for more than several hundred years, some oaks even for six hundred years. These elms are said to be more than a hundred years old. If they could speak, what would they tell us? What has changed since their youth? And what kind of historical events did they witness? //
+==== *Horse chestnut, witte paardenkastanje, le marronnier d'Inde, Aesculus hippocastanum ====
+{{:afgehaald21aprilb_029.jpg?200|}}
+We're happy to introduce you to the horse chestnut, the king of this small pardise of biodiversity in the middle of town.
+// If you're many, the best way to get to know this tree is to form a circle at the far ends of its crown. If you're alone, you can walk the distance. This makes you realize how wide a tree can be, even in the city. And how wide his roots grow under us. //
+The horse chestnut ows its success to king Leopold II. Thanks to him some avenues are still gifted with magnificent rows of horse chestnut. This species is well adapted to the urban environment, although his fast growing branches are often heavily cut and his roots can cause damage to footpaths.
+In times of crisis you might be happy to know that the roasted seed of the horse chestnut is used as a coffee substitute. The cooked seed can also be dried, ground into a powder and used as a gruel. The seed is quite large, about 3cm in diameter, and is easily harvested.
+Unfortunately the seed is also rich in saponins, these must be removed before it can be used as a food and this process also removes many of the minerals and vitamins, leaving behind mainly starch. The seed contains up to 40% water, 8 - 11% protein and 8 - 26% toxic saponins[218]. The seed needs to be leached of toxins before it becomes safe to eat - the Indians would do this by slow-roasting the nuts (which would have rendered the saponins harmless) and then cutting them into thin slices, putting them into a cloth bag and rinsing them in a stream for 2 till 5 days.
+Saponins in the seed are used as a soap substitute. The saponins can be easily obtained by chopping the seed into small pieces and infusing them in hot water. This water can then be used for washing the body, clothes etc. Its main drawback is a lingering odour of horse chestnuts. A yellow dye is obtained from the bark. The flowers contain the dyestuff quercetin. The wood is soft, light, and not durable. Of little commercial value, it is used for furniture, boxes, charcoal ad to be burned.
+Source: [[http://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Aesculus+hippocastanum]]
+// When you walk on, we invite you to think about the future. What would be the best kind of the tree for the future of this city? What would we need a tree for in 2060? //
+==== *Imaginary tree rue Dansaertstraat ====
+{{:afgehaald21aprilb_031.jpg?200|}}
+For those who witnessed the leak in the water pipe under this street some years ago, it is not a surprise you don't find any trees at this side of the rue Dansaert. Therefore we invite you to imagine your own tree, one that can be of help for future generations of this city.
+What tree did you think of while walking here? And why?
+And would you consider it to resist to the criteria of today's choices for planting trees in the cities?
+It is no coincidence that the actual trees in the city are very different species to the ones we find in the forest. There are only a few types of trees that can survive in the city. This depends on several factors: their resistance to salt (in winter), vandalism, pollution, pressure on their root systems, and also the conditions of various pipelines under the roads (gas, water, electricity, metro…).
+The beech, the poplar, the willow and many types of fruit trees have crawling roots, that can be visible at the surface. These trees are highly sensitive. It is important that their roots are not damaged, because these wounds serve as large entrance gates for all kind of illness agents. Parking cars, cutting the grass, playing at their roots will asphyxiate them. Water and a lot of air in the soil are needed to guarantee their metabolism. This said, a lot of citizens don't like this type of trees for a very different reason: the leaves and the fruits that fall of in autumn.
+// Take a picture of your tree, write down its specificities, turn it into story that you can tell to yourself or your friend while walking back to Vieux Marché aux Grains for the last series of trees. //
+==== * Plane, plataan, platane, Platanus – all together they form the Brussels' Court of Peace ====
+{{:platanen.jpg?200|}}
-==== *Imaginary tree Dansart ====
+Please meet the toughest of all trees, the planes. These trees do resist smoothly to any kind of pullution, vandalism and root pressure. If they happen to be damaged or attacked, they react as snakes do: they grow a new skin and let go of the old jacket. They are abundantly present in Brussels, because people appreciate their presence very much.
+In a more negative way, one could compare these trees to plastic living beings. Opposite to most trees, they do not go into symbiosis with other species. This is due to the fact that none of the fungi, insects or other friends migrated with them to the North.
+These planes are hybrids of Western and Eastern planes.
-==== *Platanus the Court of justice ====
+Therefore, the planes seem to be a beautiful metaphor for people who arrive in Brussels and for the openness of inhabitants towards them. We all resist the sometimes unfortunate conditions of this place, most of us arrived alone or in company of soulmates, and it takes time to get into other symbiosis than what we grew up with. But more than any other tree, planes bring with them new perspectives, flexible living, sweet shades, nice sounds and the breeze of mediterranean plazas.
+Therefore we baptized the trees of this square as the new wise people, always ready to advise and share, if only we are ready to listen to them.
+// Whenever necessary, you can make a fist, whisper your problem into it, put your hand on the bark of one of the planes, and listen carefully to their answer. Do not forget to thank the tree when you leave. //
 ----