‘Timber!’: tree planted in Wan Chai by last Hong Kong governor Chris Patten in 1993 felled
- Workers cut down three-storey-tall barren weeping fig at junction of Luard Road and Johnston Road, after efforts to save the tree fail
- Government says tree infected with fungus and its health deteriorated after Typhoon Saola hit city last September
A tree planted by Hong Kong’s last governor, Chris Patten, in busy Wan Chai district in 1993 has been felled, with the former leader speculating that it may have been due to its “poor shape”.
Workers used chainsaws on Saturday to cut down the three-storey-tall barren weeping fig at the junction of Luard Road and Johnston Road.
The Leisure and Cultural Services Department said in the evening the tree had been infected with fungus and that its health had deteriorated after Typhoon Saola hit the city last September.
It added that staff had carried out maintenance work such as loosening the soil, laying organic mulch and watering as well as applying pesticides and fungicides.
But the tree was still assessed on February 19 to be beyond salvaging and posed a safety hazard to the public, so it was removed on Saturday.
In a reply to the Post, Patten said: “I have planted trees all over the world including Hong Kong and my own garden and cannot remember all of them.”
He added: “Presumably the tree was in poor shape. It happens. Clearly any other reason would be too silly for serious people to contemplate.”
Tree expert Jim Chi-yung, research chair professor of geography and environmental science at the Education University of Hong Kong, said the weeping fig was doomed from the beginning.
He said roads in Wan Chai were narrow and tree pits were typically about a metre wide and long, which was too small for one the size of a weeping fig with large arching branches.
“It is unthinkable and impossible to grow a three-storey-tall tree in a small pit. It is a recipe for disaster,” he said. “Its survival [for this long] was a miracle.”
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Jim called on authorities to resolve the issue by either growing smaller trees in small pits or expanding pit sizes to accommodate bigger ones.
“If this is not resolved, another problem will repeat,” he said.
Jim said he had repeatedly urged authorities, in vain, to enlarge the existing pit for a banyan tree planted by US country singer John Denver in the same district in 1994.
The tree, more than 10 metres in height, was planted in a pit about a metre long and wide at the junction of Johnston Road and Wan Chai Road.
