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The Unlikely Survival of the 1,081 Year-Old Redwood El Palo Alto

141 points| igonvalue | 4 years ago |nytimes.com

26 comments

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clpm4j|4 years ago

I used to live in a condo building directly across the street from El Palo Alto. Walked by it every morning. Like the article says, it's in a small park right next to the Caltrain tracks, and you probably wouldn't take notice of it unless you already knew about it. I didn't know a lot of the history that this article provided, though... I love the thought of a >1k year old living thing just standing there inconspicuously.

sleepytimetea|4 years ago

I have walked past that tree probably more than a hundred times and I never knew it was that old or the originator of the name of the city. Its not very tall or massive, unlike the giant trees in the park on Lytton Ave. I always liked that big and tall condo building there - with big balconies facing the tree - was it fun to live in that bldg ?

jonshariat|4 years ago

Ditto! Man that was a great spot to live so much to walk to nearby and you have a caltrain stop right there.

I remember walking through that tiny park reading the usual signs when I read the Palo Alto one. Its very unassuming and I was so surprised I had to look it up and verify I had it right.

compsciphd|4 years ago

I used to drive by that park all the time (driving to San Mateo from Palo Alto down Alma, much easier than dealing with El Camino traffic) and never knew that was there.

contemporary343|4 years ago

Walked by it every day! I remember reading that if high speed rail ever does materialize (and that's a big, big if..) they'd have to do something about the track positions and the tree.

bombcar|4 years ago

It never occurred to me that Palo Alto means Tall Stick(Tree) even though I knew Alto meant tall.

guipsp|4 years ago

If it makes you feel better, it never occurred to me either, and I know the meaning of both Palo and Alto

jacquesm|4 years ago

Pole in English = Paal in Dutch = Palo in Spanish

batsy71|4 years ago

I live right next to this tree. Interestingly, the city of Palo alto also has some electrical plumbing attached to this tree. Not sure if it's for the tree's health or just some connections for the nextdoor train tracks.

icedistilled|4 years ago

The article actually talks about a misting system set up a few decades ago for the tree since coastal redwoods can take in a lot of their water from fog. It didn't make clear what the current status of that system was or I missed that part.

hkmurakami|4 years ago

Redwoods are notoriously water hungry (and thus sometimes out of favor these days as part of landscaping these days), so it would not be surprising to install some help for this one.

quercusa|4 years ago

I grew up on the East Coast, so my first trip to Big Basin Redwoods State Park [0] was awe-inspiring. I'm glad to see this tree surviving so far from its preferred environment.

[0] http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=540

drdeadringer|4 years ago

I also grew up on the East Coast.

My first "real" job out of University had me pinball around the continental US, which eventually lead me to California.

When I drove down from Washington [state], I passed through a grove of Redwoods. Having never been to California and never seen live and in person Redwood trees before, I took a few minutes to pull over and chill.

Clearly an experience I still remember.