Taking Place In The Trees

I was recently on Newbury Street in Boston. Turning away from the nifty pay-for-parking machine (these things have replaced meters on the street, and they couldn’t be more convenient, or more helpful for reducing street furniture clutter), I spotted this valiant little Gleditsia, working hard to stay alive:

What had been a typical street tree -- a standard-form Honey Locust -- was cut down at some point, and now sports shrub-like topgrowth.

A little way down the street was another Gleditsia, this one growing in a similarly sized tree pit, but intact from the saw:

Both trees work hard under severe limitations. The far tree shows what the nearer tree could have looked like.

How well these characters are doing is a direct consequence of how well they’re being cared for, and of their native vitality. The far tree is impressive for its growth despite the tiny volume of root space available for it; the near tree admirable for its persistence.