01-12-2015, 03:58 AM
I have seen very large girdled albizias that had appeared to be dead standing trees, completely leafless for over a year, come back one branch at a time. They are the only tree I have ever seen that could do that after having 1 to 2 foot bands girdled at their base. There is an example of this in the empty lot next to the rooster farm at 16th and Paradise. It was girdled a few years ago after the rooster farm's catchment was destroyed by a falling albizia from that lot and has completely recovered after being leafless for over a year. If you drive around HPP you will see dead appearing large trees that have little green patches of leaves high in their tops, if you observe those trees over a period of months they will eventually recover from the girdling. If girdling was permanently effective there would be a whole lot less albizia here than there are.