Flirting trees

Melbourne trees and its citizens – a love story.

“What happens when you give email addresses to trees? They get love letters!”

Oliver Sacks

An article from The Atlantic CityLab journal reports the initiative of the city of Melbourne – Australia, assigning trees email addresses so citizens could report problems. Nevertheless, people wrote thousands of love letters to their favorite trees.

Read some of them.

Be inspired by love.

“My dearest Ulmus,

As I was leaving St. Mary’s College today I was struck, not by a branch, but by your radiant beauty. You must get these messages all the time. You’re such an attractive tree.”

“To Golden Elm Tree,

I’m so sorry you’re going to die soon. It makes me sad when trucks damage your low hanging branches. Are you as tired of all this construction work as we are?”

“Dear Algerian oak

Thank you for giving us oxygen.

Thank you for being so pretty.

I don’t know where I’d be without you to extract my carbon dioxide. (I would probably be in heaven) Stay strong, stand tall amongst the crowd.

You are the gift that keeps on giving.

We were going to speak about wildlife but don’t have enough time and have other priorities unfortunately.

Hopefully one day our environment will be our priority.”

Love letters sent by students also got answers…

“Dear Green Leaf Elm,

I hope you like living at St. Mary’s. Most of the time I like it too. I have exams coming up and I should be busy studying. You do not have exams because you are a tree. I don’t think that there is much more to talk about as we don’t have a lot in common, you being a tree and such. But I’m glad we’re in this together.

Cheers,
F”

“Hello F,

I do like living here.

I hope you do well in your exams. Research has shown that nature can influence the way people learn in a positive way, so I hope I inspire your learning.

Best wishes,

Green Leaf Elm”

“Hello Mr Willow Leaf Peppermint, or should I say Mrs Willow Leaf Peppermint?

Do trees have genders?

I hope you’ve had some nice sun today.

Regards

L”

“Hello

I am not a Mr or a Mrs, as I have what’s called perfect flowers that include both genders in my flower structure, the term for this is Monoicous. Some trees species have only male or female flowers on individual plants and therefore do have genders, the term for this is Dioecious. Some other trees have male flowers and female flowers on the same tree. It is all very confusing and quite amazing how diverse and complex trees can be.

Kind regards,

Mr and Mrs Willow Leaf Peppermint”

Love letters between trees were valid too…

“To Oak Tree,

How y’all?

Just sayin how do.

My name is Quercus Alba. Y’all can call me Al. I’m about 350 years old and live on a small farm in N.E. Mississippi, USA. I’m about 80 feet tall, with a trunk girth of about 16 feet. I don’t travel much (actually haven’t moved since I was an acorn). I just stand around and provide a perch for local birds and squirrels.

Have good day,

Al”