On March 24, 2013 Orlando got struck by an unusual storm. It rained for most of the afternoon but for a twenty minute period of time the conditions where eerily reminiscent of a hurricane. Rain slapped against windows, we received tornado warnings, and parts of the city were pelted with marble sized hail stones. When the weather calmed down there were scattered tree branches everywhere. Luckily, since the storm was so brief most people only lost power for a little while.
A few days later on my way home from work I drove past Lake Ivanhoe Park. One of the parks giant trees had fallen during the storm.
The tree's main fracture had occurred about six feet off the ground.
One of the large branches had crumpled a dog waste bin.
I took this photo of my hand against the core of one of the smaller exposed branches. I couldn't even begin to count the rings.
I climbed on one of the fallen branches to get a better look at the tree. The blurry upper portion of my shadow was about four feet away on the ground.
Large sections of the rough bark were stripped away revealing a smoother, speckled layer underneath.
The main fracture, several feet off the ground, brimming with texture and a surprising variety of color.
A smaller split branch with a dark streak - a telltale sign that this tree was already weak when the storm hit.
The fallen tree was so large that it's branches damaged a neighboring tree.
A close up shot of the rotted out core of the tree. Brittle and dry, it looked like a foreign landscape within the tree.
This is where the rotted core and the healthy trunk meet.
Parts of the tree that once faced the sky now look down to face me as I capture a jet flying by.
That pic with the dark streak through the heart, looks like it was lightning-struck at some point in it's life. I know this little park, it juts out into the lake near I-4! Aren't you glad I drove you to your new store over that route, way back when?
ReplyDeleteMy mind is a blur with related ideas...Chief among them is a tree that a customer of mine took out of their hard, very large girthed oak with great height. As they got it taken down to ground level, we discovered that the interior had a void in it, that wasn't rot. At least, I don't think it was from that. What made it stand out was that there was bark in the void inside! All surfaces inside had bark just like the exterior, which is why I don't think the tree was sick from rot. Brandon simply took it down so he'd have a way to get his RV into the backyard.