Two More Trees - One Has Been 'Decapitated'

Another drive to just get out and about during the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in 2 new Monkey Puzzle trees being spotted. Both being close together on Friern Barnet Lane, North London. However, as is clear in the photo below the first one we spotted had a large part of its growth drastically cut at the top. This is not the first time we'd seen this type of awful vandalism by people, these 2 trees in Camarthen and this 1 in Ruislip. being earlier examples. The interesting thing about this latest tree was that despite its poor treatment it still had managed to produce a female (seed) cone! This led to me and Nat thinking that the cutting of the tree must have been recent. However, checking later on Google Maps Street View resulted in the surprise discovery that the tree was in the exact same stage of growth, with the top removed, back in 2008. Not only that but in 2019 there was a large number of seed cones present! So now I have a big question to find an answer to, can a Monkey Puzzle carry on living despite such vandalism or is it just a very slow death and the cones are the tree's last gasp at spreading its genetic material before it finally gives up the ghost? If I find an answer I'll post it on the blog.

The other tree as can be seen looks healthy and growing unmolested as all trees should, whether they're a Monkey Puzzle or any other species of tree.

151a Friern Barnet Ln

95 Friern Barnet Ln

Monkey Puzzle Trees Seen - 571