I walked a couple of the trails in the Wildflower Center including the Mollie Steves  Zachry Texas Arboretum trail, a new trail recently completed and entirely devoted to oak trees. As you walk this 1.1 mile trail, it has several signs with history and pictures of famous Oak trees around Texas one of which is reputed to be over 1000 years old. I took several pictures of the mighty oaks that are growing there.  Some of these are several hundred years old. The Center has cleared the scrub and Cedar from this area and turned it into an open  landscape especially for these fine old oaks to grow. There are already Texas native flowers growing along with the usual stand bye, the cactus and native grasses. This will be a very interesting place to visit as it flourishes and grows.

I included two pictures of oaks that have died of Oak Wilt, a deadly disease to several varieties of oaks. Once infected, there is no real cure and the only hope of preventing the disease from spreading from tree to tree is by trenching to prevent the spread through the roots and spraying to kill the sap beetle that also transmits the disease.

When you look at these awe-inspiring trees, the significance of man pales against the longevity and magnificence of these mighty oaks that have stood for so long.  With the help of the Wildflower Center they are assured of a much longer existence.