The Tree of Life, also known as the Étienne de Boré Oak, is a large, historic

southern live oak ''Quercus virginiana'', also known as the southern live oak, is an evergreen oak tree endemic to the Southeastern United States. Though many other species are loosely called live oak, the southern live oak is particularly iconic of the Old South. ...

(''Quercus virginiana'') in Audubon Park in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

. Adjacent to

Audubon Zoo Audubon Zoo is an American zoo located in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is part of the Audubon Nature Institute which also manages Audubon Aquarium, Audubon Louisiana Nature Center, Freeport-McMoran Species Survival Center, Audubon Park, and Audu ...

's giraffe exhibit, the old and popular park landmark was planted around 1740. The tree is commonly hugged and climbed. Its

crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, parti ...

is draped with

Spanish moss Spanish moss (''Tillandsia usneoides'') is an Epiphyte, epiphytic flowering plant that often grows upon large trees in tropical and subtropical climates. It is native to much of Mexico, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Central America, South America (as far ...

. The tree's size and age led it to become one of the 43 inaugural members of the

Live Oak Society The Live Oak Society is a membership organization for mature live oak trees. It was founded in 1934 to advance the culture, distribution, preservation, and appreciation of the southern live oak (''Quercus virginiana'') and functions under the aus ...

History

The tree is said to have been planted by

Étienne de Boré Jean Étienne de Boré (27 December 1741 – 1 February 1820) was a Creole French planter, born in Kaskaskia, Illinois Country, who was known for producing the first granulated sugar in Louisiana. At the time, the area was under Spanish rule. Hi ...

, the first

Mayor of New Orleans The post of Mayor of the City of New Orleans () has been held by the following individuals since New Orleans came under American administration following the Louisiana Purchase — the 1803 acquisition by the U.S. of of the French province '' ...

, in 1771, as a wedding gift to his wife. However, this is just a rumor, as a sign adjacent to the tree says that it was planted around 1740.

References

{{reflist

External links

* I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing, a poem by

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman Jr. (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist; he also wrote two novels. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature and world literature. Whitman incor ...

about the tree that was included in his collection ''

Leaves of Grass ''Leaves of Grass'' is a poetry collection by American poet Walt Whitman. After self-publishing it in 1855, he spent most of his professional life writing, revising, and expanding the collection until his death in 1892. Either six or nine separa ...

'' (on

Wikisource Wikisource is an online wiki-based digital library of free-content source text, textual sources operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole; it is also the name for each instance of that project, one f ...

) 18th-century establishments in Louisiana Individual trees in the United States New Orleans Individual oak trees