THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ANTIGONUM

LET THE record show that Constantin, the character by Keanu Reaves, in the film with similar tittle appeared last night in a not sure if dream/nightmare and commanded your humble servant to write these lines.

In our times there are now: dance instructors, motivators, personal trainers and life coaches, too many with a high school like culture. Everyone into these fads is making a buck helping people without much creativity, stamina, or research skills. In Puerto Rico, some of the greatest jerks and jerkettes minds are into this kind of service.

I learned how to lift weights, exercise from magazines, watching others. Dancing was learned practicing at home, sharing with others. It seems that is no longer the case and people must go to dance school for lessons. However, I find too baroque the dancing styles nowadays, the couples seem very foolish as in a ball room competition...

AT any rate, it is time to share my views, based on experience, life observation, regarding trees that no one should ever plant in an URBAN context. Particularly in sidewalks a la Puerco Rico five feet wide, driveways or ANY paved surface close by the tree in question.

That is a priority, please keep in mind electrical wires also. The
beyond imbeciles providing maintenance to those wires in Puerco Rico will mutilate an destroy any tree close by, even if the branches are not
a hazard, they will amputate by impulse, it is a habit. Therefore plant small trees. Do not be a jerk. Look around and calculate how tall will your preference grow upwards in five/ten years. How will the roots spread? Be humble, get rid of it, if mistaken when it is less than eight
inches in diameter. Or do as I do. Calculate how many years you have left to live.

ANTIGONUM CAJAN
BANNED TREES
FOR ANY URBAN CONTEXT
with conditions similar to
Puerto Rico, USA in the tropics

Lagerstroemia speciosa
Terminalia catappa
Couroupita guianensis
Eucaliptus pauciflora
Swietenia mahogani/macrophyla
Cassia javanica
Ceiba pentandra
Barringtonia asiatica
Dilenia indica
Ficus nekbuda/any Ficus
Delonix regia
Peltophorum inerme
Enterolobium cyclocarpum
Cananga odorata
Pithelobium dulce
Mangifera indica
Tectona grandis
Bucida buceras
Spathodea campanulata
Pterocarpus indicus
ANY PALM
no
exceptions

that is that.

If you are wondering for reasons here they go. Leaves. The following are the worst: Terminalias, Bucidas and Mahogany, in terms of leaves drops, they fall like snow. Leaves on the ground, in the neck of the woods may seem picturesque. They are also useful in terms of protecting the soil providing nutrients with decomposition and slowing the force of rains,
decreasing erosion .

However, leaves on any paved surface create not only a problem of aesthetics, particularly around a house or any type of property/building,
but of safety/hazard when wet.

More important some leaves will STAIN the surface. Mahogany/Bucida
are known for that. The stains may be cool if you have an artistic vein, but of a rusty/swamp water brown color, not my favorite.

With these trees you get a bonus, they get soapy slippery after it rains ..If you fall fine, but if some else does, you may be in court with a law suit. Seeds from Mahogany are a real nuisance due to their hard skin.

The roots are another type of problem since they may wrap around your
water pipes, or may lift the paved surface looking for oxygen. It is that simple. Most roots in any tree grow in the top 18 inches of soil. They have great hydraulic power, lifting not only sidewalks, driveways, but also
houses! It depends on the tree and its age.

What do I have? Murrayas, Calliandra, Bauhinia, Coccoloba, Pithelobium,
Dracaena, Jatropha gossyfilia, and five varieties of Frangipani on the ornamental department. Of this list, only the first two in the ground. In the orchard there are lemon, oranges and Malpighia in pots. Carica papaya, lemon in the ground. None of my trees will create any of the problems mentioned.

From the list of banned trees many are evident in the most absurd spaces imaginable creating all the mentioned problems. They would do fine in great expanses, but not around structures unless forty feet around to
spread, and no paved surfaces. Time to go..

Editors Note
'Tree Maintenance'
Oxford University Press
by
P.P. Pirone
is the only book
I care to use and
suggest
as
reference.