SOUTHPORT—After a brief wood-boring insect scare last month, Southport’s Indian Trail Tree is holding strong.
The beloved tree has been the subject of many town tales, with some legends dating it back 800 years. Believe it or not, the older tree has grown susceptible to insects hungry for its wood.
The tree’s arborist, Greg Connolly, noticed sawdust surrounding the historic tree during a routine round of fertilization injections. Sawdust is a tell-tale sign of wood-boring insects that eat through living or rotting tree tissue.
Connolly hypothesizes the damage could have been coming from a moth.
“That’s a really old tree and it’s a tree that has some rot in it, so it’s easy pickings,” Scott Len, Southport’s Forestry co-chairman, said. “I guess they just saw an easy mark and went after it.”
Because of the tree’s maturity, Southport has financed periodic fertilization injections prior to the discovery of the insect due to “the condition it’s been in lately,” Lloyd said.
Though the insect has yet to be identified, the tree has not shown any additional signs of damage after an insecticide was applied May 22 and 23.
“I’ve been checking it every other day when I walk down there,” Len said.
Southport’s city planner, Thomas Lloyd, said the issue was addressed before the insects had caused fatal structural damage.
“They can cause a lot of damage in a pretty short amount of time,” Lloyd said. “We’re really hoping that the pesticide did the job.”
Live oaks within the Keziah Memorial Park adjacent to the Indian Trail Tree and in the neighboring Franklin Square Park show no signs of wood-born insects.
“It’s not an infestation that’s attacking all the live oaks in town,” Len said.
A local legend
Just a block from the Intracoastal Waterway, The Indian Trail Tree is not your average oak.
“It is such an important cultural tree to the city and to the history of the city,” Lloyd said.
Though the city is lined with live oaks, this one has been the stuff of myths and legends for decades. Its gnarled base is thought to have been tied into a knot or bent by Native Americans while the tree was just a sapling, causing the it to take root a second time.
“In the late 1940s, somebody in the town got this urban legend about this tree and called somebody in and it got put on a plaque,” Len said. “This 800-year figure did not come from the state forester, it’s a legend and it’s kind of taken on a life of its own.”
Whether the tree truly dates back to the 13th century, it has been the source of national and cultural significance for the town. In 1949, it got picked up by Robert Ripley when he drew a cartoon of the local landmark in one of his columns.
“The people that really made the legend stick were Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” Len said.
Between insects, wars, hurricanes and flooding, the tree has been sitting tight.
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