Concrete helps preserve old trees

Aging and climatic change have made some 50 old trees in the Bogor Botanical Gardens conservation center hollow; they also need to be filled in with a blend of pebbles and cement.

With an average age of 100 years, the trees -- comprising kauripines (Agathis alba), pines (Pinus pinea), palms, rose apple (Syzygium jambos) and legumes (Leguminocea) -- are prone to fungus due to the high humidity in Bogor, about 60 kilometers south of Jakarta.

Center spokeswoman Sugiarti told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday that the management preferred to fill in the hollow trees using concrete -- as can be seen in the above picture, with a worker filling a pine tree using a pebble and cement mixture -- because fumigation was not enough to prevent fungus.

Sugiarti said that fumigation could only temporarily kill the fungus but it had to be done repeatedly.

The gardens, a tourist destination in Bogor, currently have more than 150 trees that are more than 100 years old. -- Theresia Sufa