Our white pine has been dropping needless for a month. Between us and the Kraus House, the Frank Lloyd Wright House, to the south west of us in Ebsworth Park is a row of trees planted by St Louis County. They are arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis)also known as northern white cedar. Arbor vitae is Latin for 'tree of life'. They are native northern conifers in the cypress family Cupressaceae.
They grow rapidly and are the best natural barrier available both for sound and privacy. The tree can grow to 50 feet or more with a 3 feet diameter. The bark is red-brown and its fan-like branches have scaly leaves. This time of year the leaves turn color and begin to fall.
Thuja occidentalis has important uses in traditional Ojibwe culture. Honoured with the name Nookomis Giizhik (Grandmother Cedar), the tree is the subject of sacred legends and is considered a gift to humanity for its myriad of uses, among them crafts, construction, and medicine. It is one of the four plants of the Ojibwe medicine wheel. The foliage is rich in vitamin C and is believed to be the anneda, which cured the scurvy of Jacques Cartier and his party in the winter of 1535–1536.
Is it heedless?
Is it heartless, or unjudging, or forgetful, or immune?
Do we apprehend its nature, can we comprehend it power,
We, as mortal as the sparrow, and as fading as the flower,
And as changing as the moon?
John Masefield
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