A Tree With No Roots

Several years ago one of the evergreen trees in the back yard tipped over in a strong windstorm. I staked it back up, but it’s never recovered from falling over – it’s been held up by ropes and stakes for at least the last three years. It grew to about fifteen feet tall, and looked OK until last week, when it blew over again. This time, though, it tipped over much further than normal. Since it was too big to lift back into position so I could stake it up again, I gave up trying to save it, and the boys and I cut it into pieces.

It was surprisingly easy to get the trunk out of the ground. Here’s a picture of the root growth of the tree:

This picture shows ALL the roots for this tree. That’s it. There were no long thick roots running sideways away from the tree, or down into the ground. My neighbor and I were marveling at this, and we figured that because this area of the yard is usually wet, the tree was able to get all the water it needed without having to put out roots. The tree toppled eventually because nothing was holding it up outside of a few ropes.