MIGHTY OAK

The live oak tree that canopies the putting green just outside of the community center is one of the treasures of Hallmark’s garden. Its size is impressive and I wondered how its dimensions would stack up against others of its species.

So Gene Loveland and I took tape and, stomping through the ivy beneath the tree, we took some measurements. The distance from the tip of one of its branches to a farthest tip is 83 feet. The circumference of its main trunk is 138 inches. And its height (we had to eyeball this as neither of us was willing to climb) is fifty feet.

It turns out that these numbers aren’t large enough to place it among the largest live oaks. According to the Harris County Tree Register, the champion of the county grows near Tomball. It has a trunk circumference of 244 inches, a spread of 105 feet, and a height of 65 feet. Another live oak larger than ours grows at Beck’s Prime Rib on Westheimer. Some of our residents say that they have climbed in it.

So perhaps our live oak, even though it has a wingspread approximating that of a Boeing 737-300, isn’t all that mighty. But it’s a handsome specimen and will be enjoyed for a long time.

How old is it? Probably not very old as live oaks go. My recollection of this area goes back some sixty years and I don’t recall anything here except some truck farms. Maybe someone who reads this has other memories. But give The Hallmark oak another century or so and it should be up among the leaders in size. A recent article in the Chronicle reported on a live oak on the coast which is said to be thousands of years old.

There are other impressive live oaks growing in the front of The Hallmark, and across Hollyhurst to the east seen as we exit our garage. Live oaks abound in Houston and, indeed, in the south. They have been used extensively by city planners to line important avenues. In the past, the wood was used for shipbuilding, wheel hubs, and cogs, and for other needs requiring hard, strong wood.

Our tree sometimes seems determined to blanket the putting green with its acorns and pollen debris. The people who have to blow the green clean in preparation for tournaments consider the tree a pain in the neck. The squirrels disagree – for them it is a bountiful provider of acor

ns. Birds- Cardinals, blue jays, blackbirds – stop by to perch. But if they nest there, their nests are obscured by dense foliage.

Go take a seat on the bench at the west edge of the putting green. Be awed by the tree’s massive black multiple trunks and broad canopy. And contemplate about what God’s creation can do with an acorn.