Extreme Trees

Abstract

The desire for instant landscaping effect in China’s high volume residential development sector has recently generated an extreme form of arboricultural practice. Very mature trees (trunk diameter up to 3000mm, dbh) are being extracted from areas of natural vegetation, and having most of their root systems and all of their canopy removed to allow them to be transported to commercial tree nurseries, where they are brought back to life and sold on. Four commercial nurseries near Guangzhou specializing in this form of extreme transplantation, and three landscaping sites that had used trees from the nurseries, were visited to make detailed observations and to conduct interviews with the operators and site managers to understand the specific operations and techniques employed in handling the trees, and the values associated with this practice. Current scientific literature on the responses of mature trees to transplanting and physical damage gives us some insight into the arboricultural condition of these trees and how they might be able to survive such treatment, and allows us to speculate on how their condition might develop afterwards. This ‘extreme transplantation’ is contrary to all established arboricultural science and practice guidelines for transplanting mature trees. The apparent commodification of our green heritage seemingly contradicts the principles of environmental preservation and stewardship that underpin the landscape profession.