Living green cathedral near Morgan Circle

To the Editor,

Swarthmore’s Favorite Tree candidates failed to include the weeping fernleaf beech on Harvard Avenue at the entrance to Morgan Circle. This is one of two remaining such specimens from the four once locally extant. (The other is on Columbia Avenue near Cresson.) Of the two no longer with us, one was in a backyard on Hillborn Avenue around the corner from the Penn oak. The other, one of the most magnificent trees I have ever seen, was sacrificed to the construction of the Blue Route.

The weeping fernleaf beech near Morgan Circle has several daughter trees. These typically root around the mother bole from low branches which drop to kiss the Earth when long enough and heavy enough. With the passage of time, some of these branches will decay and separate from their mother; others may “choose” not to do so. In either case, a mature version of this tree can form a living green Gothic cathedral which makes it the Queen of Trees.

John Brodsky
Swarthmore