The City of Melbourne has collected data on the more than 70,000 trees in the urban forest of this Australian metropolis. The data include the species, the health status of the tree and its life expectancy, all shown on a lovely map.
As you can see from the image above, each tree also has a unique email address. The idea is that citizens can report problems with trees, like disease or a fallen limb. But as the Atlantic reported in 2015, the addresses have also been used to write charming letters to the trees. For example, this email to a Golden Elm:
I’m so sorry you're going to die soon. It makes me sad when trucks damage your low hanging branches. Are you as tired of all this construction work as we are?
Sometimes the trees even reply, like this Willow Leaf Pepperment:
29 Jan 2015
Hello Mr Willow Leaf Peppermint, or should I say Mrs Willow Leaf Peppermint?
Do trees have genders?
I hope you've had some nice sun today.
Regards
L
30 Jan 2015
Hello
I am not a Mr or a Mrs, as I have what's called perfect flowers that include both genders in my flower structure, the term for this is Monoicous. Some trees species have only male or female flowers on individual plants and therefore do have genders, the term for this is Dioecious. Some other trees have male flowers and female flowers on the same tree. It is all very confusing and quite amazing how diverse and complex trees can be.
Kind regards,
Mr and Mrs Willow Leaf Peppermint (same Tree)
You can find a new more letters in this news.com.au article as well.
That's all from us for this week. Hope you have a great weekend (perhaps amongst the trees?) and we'll be back with more next week.