Location: Eastmoreland
Author:
Marc W.
This is, from what we have been told and looks accurate from photos online, a Cedrus deodara, the Deodar cedar aka Himalayan cedar.
As homeowners since 2013, on a house built in 1928, we don't have any verifiable history. Once, about a year into owning a home a woman with her elderly father or grandfather drove by and he commented he grew up in the house and remembers when the tree was a 6-foot tall. I invited them in to talk, but they just wanted to drive by.
This is a messy tree. It drops needles almost year-round in large quantities. Also, the female cones are dense and large, quite lovely when they open a little. The male cones, size of a banana slug, are prolific at dropping yellow pollen. Also, every few years they drop at such a rate the entire area underneath is covered - literally not an inch on the ground left uncovered. Fortunately (sarcasm) this is during Nov when it is wet which makes it near impossible to use a blower. I have had to employ a snow shovel. It does provide great shade and homes to many animals.
Do not curse the tree. It does not like it and has on 2 occasions dropped a small branch on my head within a minute of me expressing disdain over cleaning up after it (I'm not kidding). Fortunately, both were less than a thumb width; you can see a hole in my neighbor’s hedge from a small/med branch dropping on it 10 years ago. I can only imagine what that hedge said...
The owners before the folks we bought from, Mike, used to build a lighted Christmas tree structure against the tree - which several neighbors have expressed fond memories of. We hang a huge plastic blow mold Santa on the tree you can see all the way up Malden in the hopes of installing some fond memories for the folks currently living nearby (not to mention the Halloween madness we employ the tree into).
In 2017 when we had significant snowfall we lost 4 small/medium limbs which fell with amazing accuracy missing the house, the power and cable lines and both cars - ok one tiny branch end (6-foot-long) did put a 2-inch dent on my wife's car hood. The other sm/md branches were so big I needed neighbors to help me move them out of the street. I can't even imagine if one of the large branches ever fell.
If for some reason the tree ever dies, I hope to hire an artist to carve a statue in the remnants of the significant trunk - as it is very tall and wide - enough to render a statue of me riding on the back of a grizzly bear and holding a bald eagle in my hand as I point knowingly to a secret. All while wearing a fancy hat. (FYI being funny for those who have no sense of humor).