Lands of different climates make me appreciate the diversity of plants. My niece Annie recently purchased a 10-acre farm in Northern Florida that is anchored by a magnificent live oak (Quercus virginiana). Its spreading, pendulous branches are quite different from the oaks that I am familiar with in New England. Its shiny and oval leaves remind me more of a rhododendron that than of this hard and stately wood. Many of the lower branches are propped up so they will not collapse or split under their respective weights.
Michael, Annie’s husband, takes me to the corner of their property to show me a pair of oaks that have amazingly intertwined and become one. Two branches the size of trunks have grown into each other in a perfect intersection that defies reason. I peer around the junction and there are no scars and any indication that these branches came from a separate tree. These trees have more in common with weirdly coupled vines than mature trees.
I shake my head in disbelief.
