Betsy came back from her run the other morning issuing a report on our English Elm,
Ulmus procera, a tree I believe to have (or had), the greatest girth in Brooklyn. We have been passing this elm on the rather lonely walk between the Parks office/Secret Police and the Bowling Green for a dozen years now, but in recent years it has shown signs of distress. I decided to walk to the B train, detouring north toward Prospect Park, to see for myself.
The trunk is massive although a phone camera's distancing effect misrepresents this truth. My guess is a circumference of an easy sixteen feet.
Dutch Elm disease? We thought Parks may be preparing to take this tree down because the fencing had been removed.
So often with trees, they sucker, even in death. We will miss this great tree!
Always awful to lose an elm. We have one - exact type unknown, but guard it tenaciously. Fortunately, it seems healthy, but one never knows. Hope 'yours' will be replaced with another elm.
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