There are actually no worse conditions in which a tree can grow in the city than in downtown Manhattan, ”Tom Cox, managing director of a company specializing in delicate park tree projects, told the news magazine
Der Spiegel
years ago
.
“There is little earth, there is hardly any light, there are a lot of exhaust gases, it is hot and cold and windy.
And under each tree there are eight or nine underground floors. "
Ulf von Rauchhaupt
Responsible for the “Science” section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
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On the morning of September 11, 2001, however, the conditions around the World Trade Center became hellish. After the two hijacked planes hit the high-rise towers and their collapse, in which more than two and a half thousand people died, toxic dust, concrete and steel parts also rained down on the park vegetation there, including an ornamental pear (
Pyrus calleryana)
. This species, originally from East Asia, was only introduced to America in the 1960s, where it is no longer as popular as it is to be planted, since it has started to behave as an invasive species. There are representatives of
P. calleryana
actually ideally suited for the greening of cities: their crowns do not grow too wide, and their foliage changes color very appealing in autumn. Their small, hard fruits are inedible for humans, but birds love them. These trees also tolerate a wide range of soil conditions and are also very resistant to plant diseases.
But seldom has a plant been as tough as that decorative pear at the Word World Trade Center. A month after the terrorist act, rescue workers found the charred, defoliated, chopped off and half uprooted tree under the rubble while searching for victims. There were more urgent things to do than to dispose of it right away, so they left it there until green leaves showed on a remaining stump - in October. As the last 9/11 survivor found, the tree was taken to the New York Park Administration nursery in the Bronx. It was planted there more out of piety than out of the belief that the tree could still be saved, and against all expectations it came through the winter. The city gardeners cherished and looked after it for nine years. New branches sprout from the damaged stumps,And even the renewed uprooting by a storm in March 2010 it survived so well that it was transplanted nine months later into the Ground Zero area, which had been redesigned as a memorial.
There is the "Survivor Tree" - for its horticultural supervisor a Sie - today near the sunken pond lined with waterfalls, which marks the ground plan of the destroyed south tower. Just like around the corresponding pond at the location of the north tower, the falling water drowns out the noise of the city and accompanies the eyes of the visitors on their hikes over the names of the victims attached to the pond surrounds. There are trees everywhere in this square. Most are specimens of the Swamp White Oak (
Quercus bicolor
), a species native to the American Northeast. But it is the small decorative pear of Asian descent that, as soon as you learn its story, involuntarily lets your eyes slip. The tree that could not be beaten down is a touching symbol of the hope and attitude that not only meets Americans at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan.