Those of you who traveled to Japan, have maybe seen trees in Japanese parks that were wrapped in plastic at the bottom.
Since the information boards, if even present, are in Japanese only, I thought it might be interesting to write about why these trees are wrapped.
Since the 1980s, Japan has problems with trees of the Fagaceae family dying. Sometimes, you see more dead trees and some years there are barely some.
Last year, however, it seemed like almost all trees of this family had died in our local park. The government thinks this is due to the temperature increase of 0.4 degrees Celsius. The cherry trees had similar problems last year, but that’s a different story…
So, what causes the trees dying?
It’s a small bug called Platypus quercivorus.
By – Own work, CC BY 3.0, Link
The second part of the name often describes the animal or plant and this is also true in this case. Quercus is the botanical name for oaks, which belong to the Fagaceae family. The name indicates that this bug loves oaks..
However, similar to rats and the pest, the bug is the cause but not the reason.. It is boring into the trunk of the tree, bringing a fungus with it, with which it has a symbiotic connection. And this fungus is causing the oak trees (and some trees of the same plant family) to die.
The plastic wrapping shall protect the base of the trunk, making it impossible for the bug to get in.
What the people in Japan try to do, is protecting important trees and trees that are more likely to be attacked. It will never be possible to protect all trees. That’s why you will always find some trees wrapped and some trees not wrapped.
In spring, the damage will not yet be visible, but in summer, you will find the dead trees everywhere between all the ones full of green leaves.
It might be, with ongoing climate change, that the dieback might even get worse. So we will need to see if nature finds a way to balance itself again. Until then, we should try to do our best to protect this earth on which we live.
Real Japanese Gardens 