A tree was uprooted in Morgan City , LA yesterday. What's going on with the lawn here?

[JoanofArgh]

Is this turf? Just curious . I've never seen anything like this before. Doesn't look like the tree has any roots.

Link to tweet

?s=20

[GoCubsGo]

1. Looks like the roots spread, rather than going deep.

I'm guessing that the underlying soil is some sort of dense stuff that roots don't penetrate very well. Which is why the grass pulled up the way it did, too. I'm betting that is centipede grass, which has a tendency to mat up.

[JoanofArgh]

5. It's probably clay. Similar to what we have in NC.

[Lochloosa]

2. Oaks don't have a tap root, just feeder roots.

[JoanofArgh]

6. Didn't know that . Thanks!

[PortTack]

9. Those are what's called live oaks, and yes they do not have a tap root

Unlike other kinds of oaks

[GulfCoast66]

11. I'm in the horticulture Field in Florida. Don't think it's a Live Oak.

They are very hurricane resistant and don’t grow upright like that. Could be a Laural Oak. They look very similar to live oaks but where live oaks routinely live 200 years or more, they rarely make it to 70. Weak limbed and rooted.

It looks more like a pecan to me. The leaves seem way to large for either oak. I’d need to be 30-40 feet away to be sure.

[misanthrope]

14. You wrote most of what I was thinking

There's a reason live oaks are indigenous to the region and so widespread. Their structure both above ground and below spreads outward.

The leaves and bark look like pecan to me, too.

[GulfCoast66]

15. People and cities planted Laurel Oaks because they grow fast.

Orlando did. Until Hurricane Charlie! They devastated our power grid. Now the city only plants live oaks. Because like you noted, they evolved in hurricane country.

The original USS Constitution(Old Ironsides) did not have iron sides. But a Live Oak hull. It’s wood is incredibly dense and heavy. When young and skinny I did arborist work. We would tie into 6” Live Oak limbs. On all other trees that was unthinkable.

But I’m pretty sure that tree was a pecan or some other type of Hickory. Because Pecan is a hickory.

BYW, I will drive 30 miles to see an old live oak where the limbs have reached the ground. Once that happens no hurricane is knocking them over! And it is an amazing experience to be near a tree older than our nation. They can be 500 years old.

[Progressive Jones]

17. I saw many ancient oaks walking around Georgetown, SC one day. Beautiful. nt

[GulfCoast66]

19. They are incredible trees. And they dominated the gulf coast until the 1700's.

Then they were almost all cut for building ship in the colonies and across Europe. The way their limbs bend down made them ideal for ships hulls. And the strength of their wood.

Most of the big ones today were too small or remote to have been harvested 300 years ago. I would love to see what the gulf coast in Florida looked like in 1690. I bet they cut 700 year old trees. Or older.

Same with cypress. They might not quite have reached Redwood size. But they got huge. I remember fishing in bayous in Louisiana back in the 70’s. There were big re-growth trees. Pushing 80 feet. But the stumps from a hundred years ago were astounding! 10 feet wide and more. They must have been 150 feet tall. Dad told me it was a sin they were all cut and I would never see a real big one. He never did either. But his dad did. Told him it was like going to church seeing those big trees.

[Progressive Jones]

20. Very cool. Thanks! nt

[LeftInTX]

23. We have oak wilt here

It's less than 1/4 mile from my home.

I live in a live oak moat...
Almost every live oak here is a root sprout from another oak..
Oak wilt travels through the roots at 100 ft per year.
All the roots are connected

[JoanofArgh]

24. Thanks for your informative posts. Very interesting.

I remember seeing a news story on a live oak in SC , so googled it.

THE FAIRYTALE-ESQUE ANGEL OAK TREE in Charleston, South Carolina, is thought to be one of the oldest living oak trees east of the Mississippi River. It stands 65 feet (20 meters) tall and measures 28 feet in circumference. An area of 17,000 square feet is shaded by its tentacular crown. The largest branch reaches 187 feet. Estimated to be between 400 and 500 years old, this southern live oak has survived a number of hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes. It was damaged by Hurricane Hugo in 1989, but has recovered and continues to grow.

Southern live oaks are native to the lowland country of the coastal Carolinas. They tend to grow more outward than upward but, due to its age, the Angel Oak has done both. Its branches reach in all directions, with some driving underground and then growing back up above the surface.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-angel-oak-tree-johns-island-south-carolina

[eppur_se_muova]

21. Wow! Wish I had seen that. I've never seen oaks walk at all. nt

[PortTack]

26. Oh..then you can speak to that. I have seen live oaks go over like ..that roots are so surface

[rsdsharp]

3. OMG! The Brady's tree fell over.

Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!

[Haggard Celine]

4. In the first video,I think it's a combination of

shallow roots and too much rain. I've seen trees fall without much wind at all, but the ground was saturated, so the top-heavy trees went over.

In the second video, that grass looks like fresh sod to me. It hadn't had time to grow roots yet. I can't tell why the tree fell down. Could have been rain, wind, or both.

[JoanofArgh]

7. We've had trees fall over with heavy rain in the Carolinas , too.

[iemanja]

8. The storm may have broken off the roots

[Chainfire]

10. It will be rough mowing that patch of grass.

Except for taking the sod with it, that is typical. I had scores like that after Michael.

[RockRaven]

12. With that second one, it looks like they maintain their lawn conscientiously, and that may be

part of the phenomenon. The exposed underneath stuff looks drier and rocky/stony, whereas the section lifted off is darker (wetter and maybe more organic material). If they had lousy soil in their yard for a lawn, and so added a layer of fine mulch/topsoil and then watered it often (but not deeply) and over time they'd kept that up, then the tree would preferentally spread its roots laterally but keep shallow because that's a) where all the moisture is, and b) the loose material on the surface is easy to infiltrate. Grass doesn't send its roots deep, so when the tree goes over it pulls its root mat with it, there's noting to stop the delamination.

[GulfCoast66]

16. There is no rocky soil in South Louisiana! All alluvial.

The tree had a shallow root system due to a high water table. I grew up in South Louisiana. No tree except the live oak can live for long in those soils and constant high winds. Well, on the rises they can. But chances are this neighborhood was built buy ditching and draining. Once the ditches fill up the water table raises. Trees can’t send roots very deep. The constant water would kill them.

[RockRaven]

18. That makes sense... Similar tree root pattern, but totally opposite reason.

Should have thought of that. Experience bias (CA denizen here)...

[FakeNoose]

13. Aren't some of these trees planted in sand?

Sand could explain why the trees are falling over in strong wind.

Yes there's grass carpet over the sand, but the tree roots have no depth in sand. Maybe the tree was just recently planted, I don't know. Our trees in the north have very deep roots, going almost as deep in the ground as the branches are high.

Some homeowners that have a sandy lot and cannot grow a thick lawn, will install a green carpet to look like grass. It's the water-saving thing to do, and still fakes out your neighbors. I heard it was fairly common in Florida, maybe also in the lower areas of Louisiana.

[snort]

22. Worms