Concrete helps preserve old trees

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