MUST ADD TO GREG’S TREES
I was not planning to post my photo #32 until later when I have more days to post, but with Greg’s post with all those trees I thought he needed this one too.
OUR SHOE TREE
Those shoes have been hanging there for a long time, and more seem to get added from time to time. A few more views…
13 response to "MUST ADD TO GREG’S TREES"
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Is this near your home? I haven’t seen one around here, but saw one when traveling…as I remember it was between Joshua Tree and Lake Havasu. I always want to know the history on how or why these started, but could never find anything.
It is not too far from where I live. A 20 minute car drive to ride on our Centennial Trail. The tree is fairly near a high school and I have always thought it gradually became a tradition to toss your athletic shoes (and then became ANY shoes or footwear) up into the tree upon the end of a school year. Of course this is all conjecture on my part.
Some of those shoes are pretty high. Must have been a challenge to get them there. I’ve occasionally seen pairs of shoes hanging from telephone wires, and I always wonder how many throws it took the person to get them up there.
It is indeed a very tall and big tree, so there is some puzzling of how some of those shoes got up there so high. But being near a high school, there seem to be ways they find to do that. I have seen shoes over telephone wires as well. Usually just one pair.
Trees that grow shoes on their branches (“Footwearicus Americanus) are very rare. You are lucky to have such a fine speciman in your area.
Thank you for the scientific name Greg. I just knew you would know.
https://www.heraldnet.com/life/a-tree-that-grows-shoes-find-it-near-snohomish/
I found this that will tell at least a little more about our shoe tree.
A very nice specimen of Footwearicus americanus! Good job! I don’t know much about that species, but I unexpectedly encountered one several miles east of Bend, Oregon. Quite puzzling in the middle of nowhere. Similarly, along Harry Cash Road east of Yreka, California, I was surprised to discover roughly a mile of barbed wire fence decorated with boots and shoes. I suspect these strange manifestations contain so many shoes they couldn’t possibly all come from our wandering mystery woman who constantly abandons clothes, undergarments, and footwear along roadsides everywhere. Anyway, yours is a very nice addition to Greg’s catalog of trees. Thanks!
Incredible! At least a shoe tree is innocuous enough.
Shoes throw over power lines in cities have an entirely different, and various, interpretations.
What interpretations would those be? I am not familiar with any but have seen a shoe here and there that has been tossed over a telephone line.
Amazing! Leave it to Greg to identify it!
This is the best shoe tree I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen a few others in the northwest – there’s a small one near Walla Walla, by Athena or Weston if I remember correctly, but nothing on the scale of this. It’s interesting that there’s a Wikipedia page for this, with an index to known trees: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe_tree_(decorated_plant). It should be updated to add this tree, and to indicate its correct scientific name.
It IS quite the attraction. I thought the same — that list needs updating to include this tree.