Two things seemed, this year, to be later than usual: the start of the normal (minor) mouse invasion of the kitchen and store-room, and the fall of the leaves. The first is not hard to deal with. The second is more noticeable, for while the grass is fairly well covered with leaves from the old, majestic oak - and the full complement of them probably nears a million - they have not yet come down in a great big dumping operation, as can happen with a sudden, hard frost. Anyway, the tree is itself sound and sheds only the odd rotten minor branch or part of it. Now the Tree Council of Ireland invites us all to join in the search for a list of Ireland's most remarkable trees, the Tree Register of Ireland (TROI). You will remember Thomas Pakenham's remarkable book, but he could cover only so many, or chose to concentrate on his selection. Already the search has, according to a press release, discovered an important yew measuring 6.67 metres in girth. This measurement, according to a British scientist, Allen Meredith, gives the tree an estimated age of over 1,000 years. The tree is in the garden of a house in Co Wexford.
So, remarkable trees can grow, maybe, just outside your front door, says the TROI. Height is taken into account, girth too. The tallest tree in the world (so far discovered anyway, the cautious will say) is a Douglas fir 98.7 metres in height and that's in Oregon. There is a Wellingtonia or giant Sequoia with a girth measurement of 29.94 metres (9.53 metres in diameter) in Sequoia National Park, California. Friends who had been in California produced postcards of probably the oldest tree in the world, an odd-looking, twisted (from memory) Bristlecone Pine, named Methusaleth, presumed to be 4,724 years old. (Think back: what was happening in Ireland at the time of its planting? What was going on in the Boyne Valley, for instance, when this tree was a small seedling?)
Data for supposed Irish champions are given in this document but "the general opinion is that the real champions are still awaiting to be discovered". It just might be in your garden, as the Wexford yew, or on your farm. More as the campaign goes along. Contact Mark Twomey, Tree Register of Ireland, Cabinteeley House, Dublin 18. Phone (01) 2849211.