Mon, Aug 16, 2010 page2

• FEATURE : ‘General Bishopwood’ is fighting a lonely struggle

  • By Maubo Chang / CNA, with Staff Writer
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  Killing to survive has been common throughout human history, and is “the law of the jungle.”

  In Minfong Village (民丰) of Beinan Township (卑南), Taitung County, a bishopwood towers 25m above the earth. It is estimated to be between 300 and 400 years old, and the county government has designated it a protected tree.

  The bishopwood was probably there when the Dutch landed in Taiwan in the 17th century, but in the memory of local elders, it is best known as the last of three such trees that remain from the complex of a military field hospital in Minfong when Taiwan was under Japanese rule.

  When Taiwan came under heavy bombardment from US aircraft during the war, local people would climb up the tree to watch for air raids.

  They named the tree “General Bishopwood,” considering it a guardian of the village and setting up a shrine dedicated to Tudigong, the earth god, under its shadow.

  Unfortunately, a banyan tree seed germinated on a branch of the red cedar and began to grow on it three decades ago.

  The banyan tree sent out aerial roots from the branch, some of which burrowed into the ground and expanded to furnish the banyan with nutrients. At the same time, the banyan’s roots grew into a web that covered the huge trunk of the bishopwood.

  Wang Chih-chiang (王志強), a botanist and assistant professor at National Penghu University, said it was typical for banyan trees to strangle their hosts to survive.

  The banyan attracts birds, squirrels and bats with its juicy fruit, dispersing its seeds through the animals’ feces, Wang said.

  When one of the seeds lands on the moist limb of another tree, it sends out aerial roots that wrap around the branches and trunk of the host tree. The network of roots also fuses together, forming a massive wooden straightjacket around the host.

  Once its aerial roots reach the ground, the banyan grows rapidly and strangles its host.

  Facing the aggressive banyan, General Bishopwood’s fate would appear to be sealed, but the Taitung County government decided three years ago to step in.

  The county asked Lo Shen-chien — then a researcher at the Taitung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station — to save the bishopwood.

  It was a difficult mission, as the banyan already covered half of the bishopwood’s trunk at the time.

  Lo worked out a three-pronged plan to free the bishopwood from the grip of its attacker. Workers would cut off the canopy of the banyan to curtail its growth, saw off its serpentine roots to stop its supply of nutrients from the earth, and apply herbicide regularly to the roots, causing them wither gradually.

  However, Lo said he had trouble finding anyone who would dare to cut off the banyan’s branches or saw off its aerial roots. The villagers consider the bishopwood a deity and it was rumored that many years ago, two loggers who cut down the other two bishopwood trees to make way for a railway died mysteriously afterward.

  Furthermore, the county’s NT$20,000 budget for the project was barely enough to buy herbicide.

  The project ended after the paltry budget ran out, and the general was left to fight his war alone, but ever the soldier, the tree refuses to yield to its destiny.

  The general will undoubtedly perish one day, but he will be remembered as a warrior who fought a good fight and demonstrated that the essential thing in life is not the triumph, but the struggle.
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