2004-2018 Hurricane Damage and Basal Growth
photos by Connie Barlow
Because I had the chance to visit the Biltmore torreyas over an extended time, I can offer a series of photos below that feature just two of the original torreya plantings, which I have named "F" and "G".
The first photos, February 2004, show the mature original torreyas, F and G, beneath a canopy of white pines.
The next photos are August 2006, which reveal tremendous damage from two hurricanes of September 2004. With the loss of the White Pine canopy, English Ivy begins to take over and crawl up the trunks. The 3 remaining original torreyas upslope of the sidewalk (F, G, and H) still have tops despite the hurricane, but the photos show them as very spindly and thus vulnerable to wind damage.
A detailed 1984 paper, "Environmental Status of the Stinking Cedar, Torreya taxifolia", by Richard Stalter and Steve Dial confirm that, prior to the hurricane, there were 14 trees (likely, the original planting):
"Fourteen healthy trees ranging from 6 to 10 meters in height are thriving at the Biltmore Gardens, Asheville, North Carolina. These torreyas produce seed and several seedlings have been observed near the parent trees (Timothy Dunford, pers. comm.)."
Thus, it appears that 3 of the originals were killed or so damaged from the hurricane that they were removed. The remaining of the mature damaged group were topped by staff in order to ensure safety for nearby cars and passersby, and those topped photos show up here in 2015.
As well, by 2015 tremendous basal growth show the species' natural response to top loss, as now new leaders will develop from the main stem itself.
When top loss occurs in the wild, one or more basals will continue to grow skyward, eventually overtaking the main stem. This is why the sister species of Florida Torreya, California torreya, often appears not as single stems but as doublets or triplets. Under such circumstances, one can presume that the rootstock is considerably older than annular rings on even the largest stem would indicate. Here is the photo series:
FEBRUARY 2004
ABOVE: Original Torreya plantings "F" and "G" are foreground trunks, which look somewhat white in the sunlight. Behind them are towering White Pines. Notice the leftward branches of "F" show characteristic leaf structure at photo edge.
BELOW: "F" AND "G" trunks in foreground, with dark gray White Pine trunk behind, and the paved road behind that.
ABOVE: White pine trunks provide shade over torreya offspring of the 1939 elder torreyas (whose trunks are not visible here).
ABOVE: Downslope of the sidewalk of the previous photo is a ravine, pictured here. Three young torreyas are visible on the ravine slopes.
 |
|
|
AUGUST 2006
LEFT: Two years after devastating hurricanes (Sept 2006), Torreyas "F" and "G" are now in the open, right by the sidewalk.
Notice how few and damaged the tall White Pines are, and that there is now no canopy shade for the pair of torreyas. (Torreya is normally a subcanopy tree.)
BELOW: Closeup view of the two torreyas.
|
APRIL 2015
ABOVE: "F" and "G" have grown basal sprouts, which offer the now full-sun trees quick ways to photosynthesize, following top damage.
ABOVE: Staff had cut off the tops of both F and G in order to ensure safety for nearby cars and passersby. Typical for this genus, no new leaders are heading upward from the cut area. Instead, if the basals are left untrimmed, one or two of them will rise skyward and eventually overtop the cut main stem.
OCTOBER 2018
ABOVE: Tops of F and G are still maintaining photosynthetic capacity. But they are not reaching upward above the cut.
ABOVE: "F" has a profusion of basal growth, now thickening.
ABOVE: Staff apparently removed basal growth from "G" owing to needing to ensure walkers on the sidewalk can clearly see when to cross the road. (The brown stem visible in far left of photo is one of the basals from "F".)
COMPARISON: Keeping basals on one but removing them from the other offers a kind of experiment opportunity. Will the basal-rich Torreya F grow faster and remain healthier, despite the full-sun and warming habitat?
Also, compare the ground layer invasive English ivy here to the 2004 brown pine needle ground cover, prior to the hurricanes.
Today hemlock is prominent on the north-facing slope of this slight ravine, and all the Torreya specimens (intentionally planted, as well as planted by squirrels) occur and are thriving on the south-facing slope. As to Torreya's cold-hardiness, Bill Alexander, forest historian at the Biltmore Gardens, reports that in the winter of 1985 all Torreya specimens survived unharmed an episode of unusual cold; temperatures plunged to minus 16 degrees Fahrenheit. Thus the world's only rewilded grove of Torreya taxifolia has already been well tested for suitability in the southern Appalachian Mountains.
August 2006 Site Visit to Biltmore Torreyas
by Connie Barlow
NOTE: In 1939, Chauncey Beadle (the Biltmore's botanist and nursery superintendent) planted in the Biltmore Gardens about a dozen specimens of Torreya taxifolia collected from Florida. The 2005 fall harvest of T. tax seeds at the Biltmore numbered 130. In mid August 2006, Connie Barlow carefully viewed all trees, and with binoculars to see the tops, but counted a total of just 55 seeds, with perhaps a dozen or more of that number being smaller and appearing nonviable. The seeds appeared on 4 females: 1 seed on each of two trees, 21 on another, and 32 on another.
The two largest (and apparently, healthiest) trees (one male and one female) are situated more than a hundred yards downslope from the rest of the original plantings. The photos below depict these two trees. Because they are surrounded by mowed lawn on 3 sides and dense shrubs on the other (the road side), I found no evidence of successful seed establishment or saplings anywhere. Using binoculars, I counted 32 seeds on this tree, ranging from 3-feet above the ground to the top-most branches. Almost all of those seeds appeared full-size.
01
02
03
PHOTO O1 shows these biggest and healthiest of all the Torreya taxifolia trees at the Biltmore. The 2-stemmed male tree is in center (yellow boundary lines), and one stem of the 4-stemmed female tree is to the right. This photo was taken from the far side of a paved road. Both trees are about 10 feet downslope of the road. Other conifers appear in the background.
PHOTO 02 is the base of the 2-stemmed male, with a quart water bottle for scale. One stem is 44 inches circumference at breast height. The other is 39 inches. Notice the mowed lawn on the other side. This pair of trees is not visible from the sidewalk. They are directly upslope from the giant dawn redwood that is visible from the sidewalk in this all-conifer area. The only apparent landscaping activity in this conifer area is grass mowing.
PHOTO 03 is the female of this pair. She has 4 stems, but two of them are broken off at 6 to 10 feet above the ground, so only 2 stems comprise the canopy. One is 35 inches at breast height and the other is 29 inches. This female bears a metal tag that reads, "Torreya taxifolia 149".
04
05
06
07
;
08
09
PHOTO O4 shows the light-green new growth of foliage, compared to the darker green of a previous year's growth. This low-hanging foliage is in a sunny spot. BTW: A simple touch test will always allow the observer to differentiate Torreya from its yew relatives. All species of Torreya have needles with very sharp (painful!) tips.
PHOTOS 05 & 06 show some of the low-hanging "fruit" of this female tree. Each single seed is covered by a fleshy green sarcotesta. The shape of T. taxifolia "fruit" is much more ovate than the oblong-ish "fruit" of T. californica. (Click to view a comparison of the two species.)
PHOTO 07 shows a doublet fruit, while PHOTO 08 shows a doublet in which the parent tree is putting energy only into one fruit. Nascent ovaries on mature trees often occur in groups of two or even three. This particular female had 32 full-size seeds on it.
PHOTO 09 shows two single fruits growing near one another.
Below is a MAP of all the rest of the T. taxifolia specimens, more than 100 yards east of the 2 largest specimens shown in the photos above. All specimens are shown in red, labelled A to S. The 3 specimens bearing "fruit" are circled in black: Specimens C, D, and S.
Next to the map is a table of stem circumferences (inches at breast height) keyed to each lettered specimen, A to S. The three specimens bearing fruit are shown in green. The surviving original plantings (surmised to be 22 inches girth or greater; the only specimen that bears a tag as an original is 25" in girth) are shown in blue. It is disappointing to note that none of the original specimens in this grove bear fruit. Many, of course, may be male. It is also disappointing that the two smallest specimens I could find had a 7-inch and a 3-inch girth; whereas during my 2002 visit I noted a number of seedlings to the west (left on map) of Specimen S.
 |
|
A - 3"
B - 8"
C - 7" (1 fruit, full-size)
D - 8" (1 fruit, full-size)
E - 8"
F - 30" (unhealthy; branches on
one side nearly leafless)
G - 27"
H - 13"
I - 8"
J - 30"
K - 17"
L - 25"
M - 28"
N - 22"
O - 24"
P - 29"
Q - 8"
R - 29"
S - 8" (21 seeds, but half of those
are dwarf in size)
|
11
12
12x
13
14
PHOTO 11 shows, encompassed by a drawn yellow outline, Specimen S (the 8"-girth tree bearing 21 fruit). A dogwood is marked by the red star. Yellow dots show the locations of what are probably specimens R, N, and M.
PHOTO 12 shows the fruit-bearing Specimen S at left foreground. Even though the branches are rather open and sparse, the foliage looks healthy. This individual gets a lot of summer sun. But because the slope across the road (visible as flat plane in background) is steep and tall, I suspect that no direct sun strikes any of the trees in this location during the months around Winter Solstice.
PHOTO 12x, taken from the road, shows a view of Specimen S (outlined in yellow on left) from the opposite viewpoint as in photo 12. The grove of Specimens K through R is indicated on the right. At far right foreground, hemlock branches dangle.
PHOTO 13 is a close-up of Specimen S lower stem, and PHOTO 14 shows a group of three of its full-size fruits.
15
16
16x
PHOTO 15 shows specimens R and Q in foreground. The left-most stem is dogwood. Several more T. tax visible behind.
PHOTO 16 is from standing to the south and seeing the "line" of specimens R and Q on the left, then looking north (center right) into the semi-circular group of K, L, M, N, and O. White sidewalk is visible in the background. None of the Torreya specimens in this photo are bearing fruit. Are they all males, or are they too stressed to bear fruit? The right-most tree (Specimen K) is the only one in this entire section that bears a tag.
PHOTO 16x shows the tag of this Specimen K, with a 25-inch girth. The tag reads, "ORIG #6", and it appears very old.
17
18
18x
19
20
PHOTOS 17 & 18 show the most-stressed foliage I could find in this I through R grove. Compare it with the lovely foliage in PHOTO 18x, which is Specimen C on the other side of the small creek.
PHOTO 19 is Specimen J, with a 30-inch girth. The creek is behind it.
PHOTO 20 shows the creek in foreground with Specimen J upslope and beyond it, and the group of J through R beyond that. None of the Torreya stems visible in this photo are bearing fruit.
21&
22
PHOTO 21 was taken while standing on the road. Pink dot marks Specimen J in background; the vine-covered big trunk mid-ground is a big tuliptree. Foreground dots mark the vibrant young trees right next to the road, and where the underbrush in entirely unmanaged. It is surprising how vibrant these young trees are, given how little sun reaches this spot. The yellow dot marks Specimen B; orange is Specimen C; blue is Specimen D. C and D each bear one fruit, and have girths of 7 inches and 8 inches, respectively. Because 7 of the 10 specimens that are clearly not the originals have girths of 7 or 8 inches, it would be interesting to know whether these represent a single year's crop of seedlings that Biltmore staff planted or transplanted all at once — and when that year would have been.
PHOTO 22 shows Specimen D's lone, dangling fruit.
24
25
PHOTO 23 is the view looking SW at Specimens F, G, and H. The paved road is just beyond them. The turquoise dot marks the healthy young Specimen H, which has a girth of 13 inches. The pink dot marks two nearby, but clearly separate, individuals that are surely part of the original 1939 planting, as they are 27 and 30 inches in girth. Both are stressed, but the one on the right in this photo has a lot of dead branches, all the way to the top, on the right-most side, and the lower (presumably dead) branches have been cut. None of these specimens is bearing fruit, and none has stump sprouts growing to take over if the main stem dies entirely.
PHOTO 24 shows in yellow and red the 2 individuals demarcated by pink in the previous photograph. The yellow dot marks Specimen F, which clearly is dying (two entirely dead branches are visible about 8 feet up the trunk; scars from lower branches that have been cut are somewhat visible). In PHOTO 25 you can see the nearly barren top of that tree, along with a stressed rhododendron in the foreground left.
Notice the young white pines in PHOTO 23. These are new plantings. When the author of this page visited the site 4 years earlier, this section was a mix of tall, old pines in the high canopy and Torreya specimens as the lower canopy. The Biltmore reports that the broken stems and otherwise weakened and degraded condition of some of the original trees is due to the devastation by hurricanes Francis and Ivan in September 2004. The estate lost hundreds, if not thousands of large trees due to the saturated ground and high winds. Dozens of large pines in the adjacent groves were either uprooted and/or broken. Biltmore arborists had to
remove additional ones that had become safety hazards. After having grown
under the pines for decades, the Torreyas have experienced sun scald and
stress from drier soil since the canopy was opened.
New Archival Information
on Original Biltmore Plantings
(contributed by Bill Alexander, October 2005)
Biltmore archival records show that Torreya taxifolia was originally brought to the Biltmore in 1896-97 and was growing at the Arnold Arboretum at that time also. In the "Biltmore Nursery Dept. Outgoing Correspondence, Vol. I 1896-1897"
there is a letter on p. 219 from C. Beadle to Prof. C. S. Sargent, Arnold
Arboretum. Beadle mentions having received from a correspondent of his in
Bristol, Florida,
"a few plants each of Torreya taxifolia and Taxus
floridana. I am quite interested to know if this latter species has ever
been in cultivation. I know that the Torreya has; indeed, you have it at the
Arnold Arboretum. If you have not plants of Taxus floridana, we will be
pleased to send you some as soon as our stock is sufficently advanced to
warrant the shipment."
The letter continues with Beadle talking more about exchanging plants. The records indicate (p. 908) that on 4 March 1897 Beadle sends Sargent specimens of Taxus floridana.
 |
|
2016 VIDEO: Early history of Torreya Guardians (by Lee Barnes)
Lee Barnes is a founding Torreya Guardian, with the longest tenure of work with Torreya taxifolia. From 1981-85 his graduate research entailed advanced propagation techniques for three endangered plants in Torreya State Park of Florida — Torreya among them. Here Lee speaks of his research and his early role in securing Torreya seeds from Biltmore forest historian Bill Alexander for distribution to volunteer planters. |
2016 UPDATE ON SEEDS FROM THE BILTMORE: November 28, 2016 email from Lee Barnes: "... Biltmore Estate offered to send us 7 seeds that I am having them send to Jack." Editor's note: Lee returned to the Biltmore to ask for seeds because we lost our usual (prolific) seed source donor this year.
|
