WHICH IS REALLY BROWNSVILLE'S OLDEST TREE?

By Juan Montoya

The residents of Palm Resaca Mobile Home Park, Inc. on Tangerine Blvd. off Jaime Zapata Road think the Mexican Olive tree (Anacahuita) pictured above may well be the oldest documented species of its kind not only here, but in the State of Texas and the United States.

Researchers from the UTRGV visited the park last December 18, 2019 and core samples indicate that the tree was between 600 to 700 years old, that is, before Europeans explorers set foot on American soil. That assertion has been verified by the Texas State Forestry and the City of Brownsville Forester.

The residents of the park will unveil a plaque honoring the "600-700 year-old historical phenomenon" at 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. March 6, 2020 and have invited the city commissioners to attend the ceremony.

The National Registry of American Forests also named it the largest such tree in the entire country.

Surprisingly, Brownsville Forester Roy G. Reyes said that a total inventory of old-growth trees in the city has never been compiled.

We were sent a photo of the magnificent Montezuma Cypress which also goes by the name Taxodium mucronatum, and also known as Montezuma bald cypress, Montezuma cypress, sabino, or ahuehuete. It is a species of Taxodium that is native to Mexico. Ahuehuete is derived from the Nahuatl name for the tree, āhuēhuētl, which means "upright drum in water" or "old man of the water."

The photo of this splendid example of the cypress was sent to us by former City of Brownsville Mayor Pat Ahumada and is located behind his daughter's house on 55 Jacaranda Street in the Rio Viejo subdivision. The former mayor started a move to preserve old trees like that one and requested $100,000 to establish a beautification back in 1991, but was turned down.

"People thought I was crazy, but they forget that a lot they think is great and enjoy started back then," Ahumada said. 

It is unknown how old the tree is, but is doubtless one of the largest trees of its kind. At one time, cypress trees lined the resacas across the city, but development of subdivisions led to their demise, save for this one and another grove located at La Posada Montezuma Cypress Preserve near the old  Jagou Plantation on Posada Street. (Right)

No one knows how long they've been around, said city commissioner Nurith Galonsky, who was kind enough to send us these photos. Recently Gene Fernandez addressed the city commission expressing concern that some of those trees in the reserve were dying.

There is another fine example of the Champion Coma at the Resaca de la Palma Battlefield. (Left)

The trees below  a pecan and a tall ebony tree are growing in the Stillman House yard but no one seems to know if they were already there when the house was built or were planted later.

Because hurricanes and  windstorms are frequent to Brownsville, some of the oldest trees may have been blown down in the past. Others, unfortunately, have been cut down as a result of urban growth or property owners building on their lots.

"I told a friend who told me he was cutting a tree that he was depleting my oxygen," Ahumada said recently. "Those are important trees. "

If any city in the United States has made a concerted effort to protect it's public trees, it has been Ann Arbor, Mich. Not only do they have a full inventory of the trees on the city's rights-of-way and public parks, they have even instituted a "canopy loss fee" assessed to projects that propose the removal of a city-owned street or park tree. The canopy loss fee is a conservative estimate of the value the city-owned tree has to the community. https://www.a2gov.org/departments/forestry/Pages/Trees-and-Development.aspx

If that seems a bit much, imagine what would the city would look like without the familiar ebony, pecan, Mexican Olives and Sabal Palms and shade and fragrance  – not to mention oxygen – they provide. 

The section of ebony stump below was picked up from an alley by the owners of Electric Fixture and Supply, at 1125 E Jefferson St. after nearby home owners had it cut down to put an addition to their home.

It alone is about four and a half feet tall and close to that in width. One can just imagine the diversity of life that lived in its branches and limbs.

It would be tragic if old-growth trees like that are cut down indiscriminately across the city. Hopefully, after a city wide inventory is completed, we will have a better idea of what comprises this great natural resource.