This hackberry tree snapped over the weekend at this N. Austin community center. I known hackberry isn't the strongest native tree and it's considered a trash tree sometimes but they have a place in some landscapes. This one wasn't near a building, trimmed and had sidewalk built around it for some reason. Isn't the root crown too deep and it has a rotted core? The sidewalk was laid down around it very tightly. Maybe the sidewalk sealed off oxygen/gas exchange degrading the trees health and acted as a fulcrum snapping it when the weakened tree leaned in the wind. Any thoughts from the tree experts out there?
by jason_atx
7 Comments
Just hackberry things
OK, so it’s in the name then: Hack is what it does to your house and the berries are for the birds to eat and spread the destruction far and wide
I highly doubt anything weakened the tree and lead to this. I’ve buried one about 6’ up the trunk and it just shot out roots into the mound and the old trunk essentially became a tap root. One reason they are considered trash trees is because they naturally break. I’m pretty sure that’s just part of their life cycle. Old tree snaps, lands on fertile ground, puts out roots wherever it is in contact with soil, sends up shoots, happiest/healthiest shoots because trees, and the cycle repeats.
Sidewalk was definitely bad for it but ironically the only sound wood in the trunk is actually what’s next to the sidewalk. The root crown on the lawn side is so rotten it just separated without any tearing of the wood.
Without information about the history of the site you can’t really say with any certainty what caused it. Most tree failures have multiple causes. The proximity to the sidewalk is really bad, they probably damaged it when they put that fence in, there’s no telling what the grounds maintenance may have entailed, etc. This tree in this location was pretty much going to fall over at some point.
Hackberry facts:
https://www.foragingtexas.com/2007/07/hackberry.html
Sigh. I have fought a back neighbor for years over hackberry’s that grow along the utility easement between our properties. She likes the privacy, doesn’t like her view of my house or the other multi unit three story homes she chose to buy. Gets pissed if I even trim the branches on my side. Doesn’t care that one day these cute trees will all burst our fences apart. I’m sure when that happens suddenly they won’t be “her trees” anymore.
Good smoking wood. I’d say similar to apple