This is one of my most favourite features of the landscaping on the campus here at USC. It’s one of the very earliest features that made me feel very much at home on the campus when I first arrived. I remember coming around a corner, seeing it, and marveling at its sheer size and splendour (see image on left below to appreciate its extent), somehow combined with being extremely inviting at the same time. I love its root system being out on display like that, and forming beardy tendrils that drip down from its branches (another view of that is on the right below). The tree is probably about 100 years old, perhaps more. It’s a real treasure for the campus.
As you can guess from the title, this is part I of series. I’ll have more to say about this tree in a bit…
-cvj
I have lived hear in Los Angeles all my life, the Fig and rubber trees,in this city, to name a few, across from the Union station, The Rose garden, and the tree on the USC campus. are wounders of what can grow hear in Los Angeles, and also the native trees like California Live oak. hear in Los Angeles. Dont lose them.
KFV
Took this pic in 1995. Even then the two trees in front of the student center were amazing.
http://www.blueboard.com/temp/1995_banyan_tree_usc.jpg
I hope the new student center doesn’t mess them up.
Well… they say a lot of things in orientation. ;-D
-cvj
you’ll find it interesting to know the campus legend concerning those trees.
according to the legend, Adolf Hitler and Rufus von Kleinsmid (USC president during the 1930s) were friends, and Hitler donated those trees to campus as a gift on behalf of his friend.
that’s what we’re told at orientation, anyway.
i say the legend fits the foreboding aura of those trees.
Thanks to all for the beautiful pics! I just like looking at them!
It is indeed a series, but a short one and on a different matter. More later.
-cvj
Gosh, this could be a series on Those Amazing Trees: fig trees, olive trees, cork trees, redwood trees… and don’t forget that wonderful living fossil: Ginkgo trees!
This tree looks like it should be in Narnia or Middle Earth!
It’s an absolute beauty. There seems to be something fundamentally appealing about trees like this. Maybe it’s because they look so intricate. But this intricacy is as nothing compared to the process by which fig trees reproduce, which is truly one of the wonders of the natural world.
metal… I sort of expected that bit of confusion, but then decided to leave it to match my usual conventions for denoting parts…
Amara:- Thanks! That is an *amazing* tree. I did not know that they did the Aspen thing… which reminds me….
-cvj
I read the title as ‘The Tree, I (meaning you)’ rather than ‘The Tree, Part 1’ 🙂
Dear Clifford, I agree about banyan trees.. they are among my favorite trees.. If you haven’t seen it yet, there is a tremendous banyan tree in Lahaina, Maui. It is one 125 year old tree (they must grow fast), dropping new roots as it grows somewhat laterally. Now that one particular tree fills a park near the waterfront of the Lahaina harbor. Kids love it too. Here is a video on YouTube that gives a sense of the dimension.