Our Friend, the Oak Tree
Trees have long been friends to humans, removing carbon from the air and giving us oxygen through photosynthesis, giving us shade on hot days, delighting us with maple syrup, giving us medicine from bark and berry. I wanted a tree to be a friend to the little girl in my newest book, Clarissa. What better friend than the wise oak, considered by some to be the king of trees.
I’m not the first to put the oak tree center stage. Its strong wood has long been used to build shelter and furniture. From the time of early civilizations, its acorns have been ground into flour. A tea from oak bark is drunk to relieve digestive problems.
And the tree is old, impressively old. Oak trees have been on the earth since the end of the Tertiary period – about 2.6 million years ago. They commonly live hundreds of years, if left undisturbed. The Bowthorpe Oak in England is around 1,000 years old, and can room 20 people in the hollow of its trunk.
Druids see the Green Man and dryads, tree spirits, in oak trees. Magic mistletoe grows in its branches.
Like many trees, there is more than meets the eye to an oak. Nutrients are spread to other oak trees through their roots, and they communicate with each other in the same way, through mycorrhizal fungal links. One oak can warn other oaks of an attacking parasite, and the other oaks will secrete more tannins in their bark as a form of defense.
And who here hasn’t been enchanted by a tree? Artist Stephen Taylor painted a single oak tree fifty times over three years. Author James Canton spent two years visiting an 800 year old oak, leading to a wonderful book, The Oak Papers.
Trees have made the news a lot lately. Deforestation is a huge threat to the world. Oak trees older than any human on earth are chopped down without a second thought. Let’s remember what they’ve given us. Let’s remember the magic of having a tree friend. Let’s find our local oak tree and observe it for awhile, sit with our backs against the strong trunk. And yes, I’m saying it, let’s go hug an oak tree and thank it for all it has given the world.
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