September 2, 2004
By Lucille Davie
EMMARENTIA Geldenhuys would be pulling out her hair by the roots if she knew that the beautiful oak tree she fought to save in Greenhill Road is now no more.
The tree, an English oak, was probably planted by her in around 1887 when she and her husband, Louw, built their farmhouse in Greenhill Road. It has stood outside the garden fence of the house for 117 years but in April this year a heavy storm caused the tree to fall over.
"Half of the tree fell over and was lying across the road," says the owner of the farmhouse, who wishes to remain anonymous.
It was then discovered that the inside of the tree was rotten. The rest of the tree was chopped down, and all that remains of the grand old tree is a sawed-off trunk at ground level, some two metres in diameter.
When the suburb of Emmarentia was laid out in 1937, a road was to be built immediately in front of the farmhouse, which meant that the large oak would have to be removed. But Geldenhuys was having none of it. She rushed out and demanded that the road go around the tree, and for the last 70 years motorists have had to cater for a kink in the road in the suburb which was named after her.
Geldenhuys lived to see her tree saved but died in 1938 and is buried in the family cemetery in Hill Road.
Mike Griffiths, senior manager of street trees for Johannesburg City Parks, says that in 1982 the tree was assessed, and it was decided that, despite the tree being 95 years old, it must remain. Dead wood was removed from the tree, and selective pruning of the low branches took place.
"This was a preserved tree, an antique, which hardly needed pruning," he says.
Then about 10 years later, the tree was again assessed. Griffiths says that people were stuffing garbage into a hollow that had formed around the base of the trunk. To prevent this, chicken mesh was placed into the hole, the soft wood was removed, and from the top, a cement mix was poured into the hollow to seal the hole.
Griffiths says that oaks live up to 400 years. He reckons that a fungus probably ate away at the centre of the trunk, allowing water to enter it and cause rotting. This encourages other bacteria to take hold, then termites discover the soft wood, further adding to the damage. Then all it needs is a storm with high winds, and the tree doesn't stand a chance.
There are a number of trees of this age in some of the city's oldest suburbs, like Parkview, Forest Town, Parkwood, Saxonwold and Zoo Lake. Some of those trees are left-overs from the original Sachenwald forest, planted by early Joburgers to supply mine props for the rapidly expanding mining operations.
The city's policy is to remove the trees when they are discovered to be dead or diseased, or if present a danger to residents.
Griffiths says that a lot of these old trees, particularly jacarandas, are suffering from a root fungus called honeycomb fungus, an airborne fungus which is impossible to eradicate.
It's symptoms are an orange colour appearing on the bark at the base of the tree. The fungus causes the roots to die off and the tree subsequently dies.
But even as the old ones die, the city is in no danger of becoming de-treed. With 10 million trees and thousands more being planted in the sparse southern suburbs, neglected in the apartheid decades, it is still one of the world's biggest urban forests.
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