|
near Arabia Mountain State Park, GEORGIA (east of Atlanta) Private landowner, John Hiner
ABOVE: MARCH 2026 - Two views of the lone torreya planted on this property, which is about 1/2 mile from Arabia Mountain State Park. JOHN HINER wrote: It is located about 60 yards from a spring-fed pond and creek. It is about 20 feet from an ephemeral creek that really only runs water during the winter with heavy rain. The torreya is located near a bottleneck (small creek) for a drainage basin of at least ~100 acres. Trout Lilies, Trilliums, and two species of Ferns are in the area, indicating a moist and shady woodland setting. ] Smilax briars dominate the trees nearby, and I regularly clear the smilax from the torreya tree and immediate area. The area is not flat, as it has some elevation change. But as you can see in the photos, the area is not topographically a ravine.The broader area here is dotted with major granite outcroppings among mixed pine hardwood forests and suburban development. We are about a half mile from Arabia Mountain State Park. The soils are generally thin on top of the granite bedrock. The torreya's soil does have a relatively deep loam layer from decades of woodland persistence, but the soils here can be thin and sandy below the topsoil layer, contrary to the quintessential Georgia red clay. I inspected the branch tips this morning, and my guess is that only vegetative buds are showing at the moment. See two photos below.
ABOVE: January 2025.
ABOVE: June 2020
ABOVE: January 2018 and December 2018
|
