Before this visit I had not been home to New Orleans for a whole year. When I am away there are lots of things I miss but one of the things I miss seeing the most are the Live Oak trees. While I was out taking pictures I was noticing their beauty and it brought to mind one particular live oak that grows way in the back of Audubon Park near the zoo. I guess I remember this tree from grade school field trips and high school hang but it has always stuck with me. I hadn’t been to the tree in years but I was able to go right to where I thought it grew and there she was.
This tree official name is the Etienne de Boré Oak but is most commonly referred to as “The Tree of Life.” With a base 35 feet in circumference I’d say she has had a very long life. It is estimated that the tree was planted somewhere around 1740 but a live oak with a girth of more than 30 feet could be as old as 500 years or more.
The Tree of Life is not alone she lives in park filled with live oaks but none are quite so lovely.
I could sit all day and admire her roots bubbling from the earth…
The limbs dripping with Spanish Moss…
and branches dipping deep until some of them actually touch the ground.
As I was leaving two children arrived running to the tree and climbing on her huge roots to play. I see that I am not the only one who loves the Tree of Life.
