Tree Appreciation

[dust]

Tree Appreciation. Appreciation of trees. Like 'Cloud Appreciation', but for trees..

 

To begin, here's a cornucopia of beautiful and extraordinary-looking trees

https://brightside.me/article/ten-strikingly-beautiful-trees-that-seem-to-have-come-from-another-world-69505/

..and I'm sure we can find a lot more.

 

Would love to see what's in your area. Would love to gradually learn more about trees, species recognition, etc.

 

One from my phone from a few months ago. Autumn morning sunlight. It's a beech.

 

Edited May 21, 2017 by dust

[silent thunder]

Trees!

 

Trees are constantly calling out to me and lensing mindfulness through me with their presence.

From stately and majestic, to the jesterly and even the downright menacing... how I love them all.

 

Bushes, shrubs and the clinging vines all state their gratitude as I exhale and pass by... I sense it.

Awareness abides in their green and flowing breath.

 

Ivy calls to me in a song of deep, abiding, sensual, cool awareness that opens the center and bids me breath deeper and saturate myself in the reality of vitality.

 

Sweet Trees.  Seeds.  Sunshine and Water. 

Bless em, high five em and thank them for what they are and what they do, every time I walk by...

Lean on em and climb them often.  They listen and they sometimes talk... if I'm of a mind to listen

[Miffymog]

Big fan of trees, or rather my small Chinese Elm Bonsai tree I use as my focal point during my standing meditation. It only cost £10 on Amazon and they sent in a box through the mail. They'd cling-filmed the pot so no soil fell out and then filled the box it was in with lots of stuffing and the tree arrived in perfect condition.

 

What was not so perfect was that over the next three weeks it lost 90% of its leaves. It had basically been in ideal conditions at the shop and then took a massive beating when it was subjected to the conditions in my little flat. BUT, after it lost nearly every leaf, loads have grown back and its now back to around 50% of it's original count - thank god.

 

So, it's survived and now takes pride of place in my lounge and helps me mediate every day

[Brian]

Here's one I've shared before of a big maple tree in my yard:

https://goo.gl/photos/oo6m7E1xR5rqGyJq9

 

And here's one I didn't take but which is not far from where I live:

http://www.thedaobums.com/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=4203

Edited January 30, 2017 by Brian

[ralis]

Big fan of trees, or rather my small Chinese Elm Bonsai tree I use as my focal point during my standing meditation. It only cost £10 on Amazon and they sent in a box through the mail. They'd cling-filmed the pot so no soil fell out and then filled the box it was in with lots of stuffing and the tree arrived in perfect condition.

 

What was not so perfect was that over the next three weeks it lost 90% of its leaves. It had basically been in ideal conditions at the shop and then took a massive beating when it was subjected to the conditions in my little flat. BUT, after it lost nearly every leaf, loads have grown back and its now back to around 50% of it's original count - thank god.

 

So, it's survived and now takes pride of place in my lounge and helps me mediate every day

 

 

Ulmus parvifolia 'Chinese elm' is an interesting choice for a bonsai tree. The bark is my favorite feature of that particular species.

[Brian]

Ulmus parvifolia 'Chinese elm' is an interesting choice for a bonsai tree. The bark is my favorite feature of that particular species.

I didn't realize there were so many varieties of elm until I looked this one up!

[ralis]

I didn't realize there were so many varieties of elm until I looked this one up!

 

 

There are several cultivators that are breeding other Ulmus cultigens to replace the Ulmus americana which disappeared from the landscape due to dutch elm disease infestation.

 

Out here we have a species that grows well in the high desert that was planted here during the dust bowl. We have two in our backyard which provides shade from the intense Western summer sun. This species, Ulmus pumila 'Siberian elm' has any number of problems, but if cared for can be a great tree.

Edited January 30, 2017 by ralis

[Rakiel]

Brian that's an excellent view from your porch

[ralis]

This shows how tough the Ulmus pumila is. This photo was taken in the Gobi desert. These particular individuals have adapted a different shape for this environment. The usual shape is of a vase and generally multi stemmed.

 

Edited January 30, 2017 by ralis

[Brian]

Brian that's an excellent view from your porch

Thanks! I think it is a particularly wonderful part of the world. Here's the thread where I linked to that photo before:

http://www.thedaobums.com/topic/35173-my-worldview

[Geof Nanto]

Thanks for the topic Dust. I live surrounded by trees in a semi-wilderness area of Australia. I've been here 19 years and it's no exaggeration to say trees and nature are the greatest source of joy and contentment in my life.  Immersion within this natural environment is also my most valued teacher.

 

View from my cabin.

 

 

Enjoying Existence

1.

Water dragons and snakes haunt marshes

while wallabies graze sparse grasslands.

 

Possums sleep content in tree hollows

while platypus delight in river waterholes –

 

And I’m just like them, in love with my

rustic cabin, my simple ways pure delight.

 

Applebox trees out front, lofty Tallowwoods in back,

I could idle away old age here with ease.

 

Everything stays close to what keeps it

content, no idea what others may crave.

 

2.

I treasure what front eaves face

and all that north windows frame.

 

Eucalypt winds lavish out windows,

colours exquisite, earth and sky.

 

I gather it all into isolate mystery,

thoughts fading into their source.

 

Others may feel nothing in all this

but it’s perfectly open to me now:

 

Such kindred natures need share

neither root nor form nor gesture.

 

(Adapted from a poem by Po Chü-i, circa 820 AD.)

 

 

 

 

(For anyone interested there was a topic last year titled The Importance of Tree gong.)  

 

 

 

[Geof Nanto]

“Trees depict the living structure of our inner self. Its roots show our connection with our physical body and the earth; its trunk the way we would direct the energies of our being–varied and yet all connected in the common life process of our being. The tree can also symbolize new growth, stages of life and death, with its spring leaves and blossoms, then the falling leaves. The top of the tree, by the end of the branches, are our aspirations, the growing bendable tip of our personal growth and spiritual realization. The leaves may represent our personal life which may fall off the tree of life (die) but what gave it life continues to exist. The tree is our whole life, the evolutionary urge which pushes us into being and growing. It depicts the forces or processes behind all other life forms– expressed through interpersonal existence.”

 

(From: http://thejungian.com/2013/03/01/trees-depict-the-living-structure-of-our-inner-self/ )

 

Tree symbolism from Western alchemy:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a couple of contemporary images:

 

 

 

(There is plenty of information on the web about tree symbolism. See, for instance: http://jungiangenealogy.weebly.com/cosmic-tree.html )

[AussieTrees]

 

Gum tree,planted 20year ago,never trimmed.

[dust]

What are thoughts on Bonsai?

 

I was curious to have a google. My grandma had an interest in them for a long time (she's given them away now to various family members, and I presume they're dying from dehydration somewhere) and I always thought they were kind of weird but cool. Also remember them from The Karate Kid...

 

http://www.bonsaiempire.com/inspiration/top-10/bonsai

 

 

 

 

http://www.bonsaiempire.com/inspiration/top-10/great-bonsai

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.boredpanda.com/amazing-bonsai-trees/

 

 

 

Edited March 11, 2017 by dust

[Stosh]

bonsai is great as a hobby, and its really cool to see what other folks do with it. It takes a huge amount of discipline to do correctly. Huge ! .. but doable .

Edited March 11, 2017 by Stosh

[Miffymog]

bonsai is great as a hobby, and its really cool to see what other folks do with it. It takes a huge amount of discipline to do correctly. Huge ! .. but doable .

 

Yesterday I repotted my little Chinese Elm. Well, I took it out the pot, shook all the earth off the roots, cut some of them back and then put it back in the same pot. I've read in some places that when you do this you should seal the end of the cut roots so they don't get infected, but I didn't bother. Hopefully it'll be ok.

 

I like to think that with there being a few less roots in the pot the tree will be a bit healthier - time will tell.

[Stosh]

I did some of this, at one time. Your goal regarding roots , is to have lots of thin fresh feeder roots which are grown adapted to the essentially inorganic growing media. Few trees need sealing of roots after trimming. You want to do almost everything gradually. Generally you reach into the root ball ,next time, and feel for the heavier roots and truncate one , if its not too old, that it wont resprout, you are multiplying the number of tips which is where the absorbing and breathing goes on. If one repeatedly cuts off the ends, most of the roots end up old. Chinese elm is a tree that takes well to normal technique ,but its slow, and you must be very patient. Pines are for the experienced grower, and a nice beginner plant Imo is bald cypress,,, but you can be creative with almost any woody species if you accept and adapt technique to the plant. I wish I had an amenable location for some,,, and the cat would allow them,

[AussieTrees]

What would we do without trees,our home tree for so many years,of course we have developed together,we have forgotten how to communicate with them,it is not the tree who has stopped communicating,modern man has stopped listening and gives the silent treatment.

 

It is no wonder that so many of the holy end there times living within a forest.

[MooNiNite]

 

It is also important to remember that forest fires are a natural part of life and essential for preventing epidemics. 

[dust]

As owner permissions do not apply for the time being (so I can't hide your post), maybe this is a good opportunity to discuss whether or not your post belongs here.

 

Yes, wildfires are beneficial to certain types of forest, and some even need wildfire in order to produce seeds and continue to flourish.

 

But a post like that... doesn't it come under 'wildfire appreciation' rather than 'tree appreciation'? If someone made a 'human appreciation' thread, would you post something about the need to appreciate death? Would that be appropriate in a topic intended to celebrate humans, not the death of humans?

 

Honest questions. My first instinct was to remove your post but now I'm only 85% sure...

[MooNiNite]

Honest questions. My first instinct was to remove your post but now I'm only 85% sure...

 

I think you should study trees more and soil. 

[Miffymog]

As owner permissions do not apply for the time being (so I can't hide your post), maybe this is a good opportunity to discuss whether or not your post belongs here.

 

Yes, wildfires are beneficial to certain types of forest, and some even need wildfire in order to produce seeds and continue to flourish.

 

But a post like that... doesn't it come under 'wildfire appreciation' rather than 'tree appreciation'? If someone made a 'human appreciation' thread, would you post something about the need to appreciate death? Would that be appropriate in a topic intended to celebrate humans, not the death of humans?

 

Honest questions. My first instinct was to remove your post but now I'm only 85% sure...

 

I can see why the dramatic picture of fire evoked some emotions, especially if you are fond of trees. For me though, MooNiNite was just raising one of the aspects of the lives of trees. There is some natural beauty even in that picture of flame.

[MooNiNite]

There is some natural beauty even in that picture of flame.

 

 

There is no question, the beauty of the flame has to be respected in order to appreciate the life and growth of trees. 

 

The discriminatory one-sided appreciation of trees is an uneducated mind-set that is ultimately killing our trees. 

 

For example, those who prevent forest fires prematurely and have invited the epidemic of pine beetles which have killed over 6.5 billion trees in north america. 

 

"It may be the largest forest insect blight ever seen in North America.^[4] Climate change, monocultural replanting, and a century of forest fire suppression have contributed to the size and severity of the outbreak, and the outbreak itself may, with similar infestations, have significant effects on the capability of northern forests to remove greenhouse gas (CO₂) from the atmosphere.^[5]"

 

It may be the largest forest insect blight ever seen in North America.^[4] Climate change, monocultural replanting, and a century of forest fire suppresion have contributed to the size and severity of the outbreak, and the outbreak itself may, with similar infestations, have significant effects on the capability of northern forests to remove greenhouse gas (CO₂) from the atmosphere.^[5]

[dust]

No emotive basis here. Just trying to keep it on-topic.

 

If you both actually read my post, you have seen I said that forest fires are indeed beneficial sometimes. But the intent of the thread is tree appreciation, not things related to trees appreciation. You could post about the importance of dispersal of seeds and pollination of plants by animals, because these are vital to the growth and sustenance of every type of woodland... and I would equally say "Meh, not sure that's really tree appreciation."

Edited April 12, 2017 by dust

[MooNiNite]

 But the intent of the thread is tree appreciation, not things related to trees appreciation. 

 

You're making the argument that trees can only be appreciated in one form. I disagree. 

 

Furthermore, your invalid mind-set is what is creating epidemics throughout North America and Canada.