While visiting the famous sole remaining Torreya taxifolia in Columbus, Georgia, Connie Barlow was struck by its location right along a free-flowing section of the Chattahoochee River. The Chattahoochee is the main conduit between the peak-glacial plant refuge in n. Florida (along the Apalachicola River) and the southwestern Appalachian Mountains, where it would have lived in warmer times. "Might this ancient Torreya actually have been growing as a wild, native tree when the early white settlers built their first homes there?" asks Connie. In this video she records the origin of that new hypothesis, as she rounds the bend and sees the close proximity of the ancient tree to the river. Also, the home whose front yard is graced by the Torreya has a historic registration plaque by its door: built in 1892, it reads. In this 24 minute video, Connie takes viewers on a visual tour of that portion of the Chattahoochee, of the tree itself, its surrounds, and a variety of evidence that supports a "this tree is native here!" conjecture. Click on blue time codes to advance to that part of the video: 00:07 - spoken intro & maps by Connie (4 minutes) 04:14 - road trip visuals in Columbus approaching the tree 08:22 - conjectures that the Torreya is native along river there 09:07 - "It's still alive!" 09:29 - Historic registration of Torreya's home: 1892 10:53 - close-up views of 3 cut branchlets w reproductive organs 12:08 - view of the neighborhood 12:50 - along the Chattahoochee River 14:24 - Chattahoochee as corridor for climate migrations 15:09 - commentary following the field trip to the tree 15:34 - maps detailing Apalachicola to Chattahoochee waterways 15:58 - evidence & argument for native hypothesis 17:31 - compare Columbus tree with Biltmore NC trees 18:35 - compare tree with sister species: California Torreya 19:47 - Columbus tree is missing a large strip of its bark 21:27 - how to test the 150+ year old age/native hypothesis 23:33 - TorreyaGuardians.org homepage view More information on Torreya taxifolia "rewilding" and on the overall topic of "assisted migration" of forest trees during this century of rapid climate change is available at http://www.torreyaguardians.org Access a list of all the videos on Torreya trees posted on this youtube channel at: http://www.torreyaguardians.org/video.html

• published: 27 Feb 2015
• views: 9