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The Unlikely Survival of the 1,081 Year-Old Redwood El Palo Alto
- vidarh 5y agoThe Seattle Times appears to host a copy of the same article without a paywall (at least I'm not getting one): https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/the-unlikely-survival-of-the-1081-year-old-tree-that-gave-palo-alto-its-name/ https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/the-unlikely-survi...
- bombcar 5y agoIt never occurred to me that Palo Alto means Tall Stick(Tree) even though I knew Alto meant tall.
- guipsp 5y agoIf it makes you feel better, it never occurred to me either, and I know the meaning of both Palo and Alto
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- noodlenotes 5y agoJust wait until you see the Stanford logo. http://identity.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SU_New_BlockStree_2color_darkbgrd.png http://identity.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/SU_N...
- kajecounterhack 5y agoIsn't Stanford's tree a Sequoia, which is different from a Redwood?
- zsmi 5y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_Tree https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_Tree "The "Tree" is representative of El Palo Alto, the tree that appears on both the official seal of the University and the municipal seal of Palo Alto, Stanford's nearby city."
- brudgers 5y agoThe coastal redwood is sequoia sempervirens. The giant sequoia is sequoiadendron giganteum. So depending on how you look at it, either species is or ain’t a sequoia or vice versa or both.
- dhosek 5y agoAs noted in another comment, the genus of the redwood is Sequoia. The trees with the common name sequoia (which are a different genus) tend to be shorter than redwoods but also much thicker in their trunks. They are native to the mountains further inland (you'll find them in Yosemite as well as (unsurprisingly) Sequoia/King's Canyon National Park). I'm pretty sure that the Stanford tree is, in fact, a Sequoia and not a sequoia.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- emmelaich 5y agoSame! Even though I knew the words palisades, impale, the phrase "beyond the pale" (beyond the fence). All the same derivation. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pale#Etymology_2_2 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pale#Etymology_2_2
- jacquesm 5y agoPole in English = Paal in Dutch = Palo in Spanish
- kurofune 5y agoNot really, "palo" means "stick" in spanish. Pole = Poste.
- aljg 5y ago"Pole" in English is derived [1] from the Latin palus (from whence "palo"). The archaic English word "pale" (also meaning stick or stake) survives in the expression "beyond the pale." [1]https://www.etymonline.com/word/pole https://www.etymonline.com/word/pole
- kurofune 5y agoThat's a neat etymological fact I wasn't completely aware of, but in today's spanish "palo" doesn't mean "pole" nor "poste", it just means "stick". I believe we are talking about two different things, because I'm only clarifying the current meaning of the word.
- canadianfella 5y agoPoste is post... pole and stick can refer to the same thing.
- jacquesm 5y agohttps://www.spanishdict.com/translate/palo https://www.spanishdict.com/translate/palo
- batsy71 5y agoI live right next to this tree. Interestingly, the city of Palo alto also has some electrical plumbing attached to this tree. Not sure if it's for the tree's health or just some connections for the nextdoor train tracks.
- icedistilled 5y agoThe article actually talks about a misting system set up a few decades ago for the tree since coastal redwoods can take in a lot of their water from fog. It didn't make clear what the current status of that system was or I missed that part.
- hkmurakami 5y agoRedwoods are notoriously water hungry (and thus sometimes out of favor these days as part of landscaping these days), so it would not be surprising to install some help for this one.
- clpm4j 5y agoI used to live in a condo building directly across the street from El Palo Alto. Walked by it every morning. Like the article says, it's in a small park right next to the Caltrain tracks, and you probably wouldn't take notice of it unless you already knew about it. I didn't know a lot of the history that this article provided, though... I love the thought of a >1k year old living thing just standing there inconspicuously.
- jonshariat 5y agoDitto! Man that was a great spot to live so much to walk to nearby and you have a caltrain stop right there. I remember walking through that tiny park reading the usual signs when I read the Palo Alto one. Its very unassuming and I was so surprised I had to look it up and verify I had it right.
- contemporary343 5y agoWalked by it every day! I remember reading that if high speed rail ever does materialize (and that's a big, big if..) they'd have to do something about the track positions and the tree.
- sleepytimetea 5y agoI have walked past that tree probably more than a hundred times and I never knew it was that old or the originator of the name of the city. Its not very tall or massive, unlike the giant trees in the park on Lytton Ave. I always liked that big and tall condo building there - with big balconies facing the tree - was it fun to live in that bldg ?
- compsciphd 5y agoI used to drive by that park all the time (driving to San Mateo from Palo Alto down Alma, much easier than dealing with El Camino traffic) and never knew that was there.
- quercusa 5y agoI grew up on the East Coast, so my first trip to Big Basin Redwoods State Park [0] was awe-inspiring. I'm glad to see this tree surviving so far from its preferred environment. [0] http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=540 http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=540
- drdeadringer 5y agoI also grew up on the East Coast. My first "real" job out of University had me pinball around the continental US, which eventually lead me to California. When I drove down from Washington [state], I passed through a grove of Redwoods. Having never been to California and never seen live and in person Redwood trees before, I took a few minutes to pull over and chill. Clearly an experience I still remember.
- dmckeon 5y agoBig Basin is mostly closed just now after the CZU fire, but I can recommend Henry Woods [1] if you are visiting Mendocino. [1] https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=438 https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=438