Quervus nigra - Black Oak
Ute Wegener plants a tree of remembrance
Ute Wegener donates her sponsor tree, a black oak (Quercus nigra,) in memory of her father, who unfortunately died very young. In the 1950s, he worked as a horticultural technician for Professor Hansen in the University of Applied Sciences' viewing garden.
"I spent much time there as a child," says the 77-year-old. When she visits the campus today, she is amazed at the development of the HSWT, she continues. "Of course, the new buildings and facilities didn't exist when I was a child. Here, research is not hidden in test tubes but made visible: in the courtyard garden, the viewing garden or the teaching forest. Because only if we know how the behaviour of trees and plants changes in climate change can we consciously take countermeasures," she hopes.
"I studied English in England and later lived in London for 35 years with my husband and our two children," she explains. There, she was infected by the gardening passion of the English and recounts in rapturous memory: "I had a large, south-facing garden in which I planted and tended a fig tree, grapes, a robinia and colourful flower beds, among other things."
In the course of their retirement, the couple came back to Germany about ten years ago. Today, they live in Munich. Ute Wegener learned about the 50th anniversary of the HSWT and the tree planting campaign rather by chance from the newspaper. "I wanted to get involved in the project right away and am happy to be able to contribute a little as a tree sponsor," she says. What she likes about the black oak is not only the beauty of the tree but also its usefulness as a source of shade and wood for building houses, for example.
Distribution: Southeast USA
Size: 15 to 20 metres high
Leaves: obovate to narrow oblong glossy green, 5 to 11 cm
Flower: golden yellow catkins
Fruits: broad, oval acorns with felt-like hairy cups
