Photo: As seen in Villiages News
“…Beauty and stress relief are probably the two most meaningful benefits trees bring to highways,’ said Andrew Koeser, an assistant professor of environmental horticulture with the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences…
Recognizing these advantages, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) transplants many kinds of trees along the state’s highways, including palms, the variety most widely associated with the Sunshine State. Indeed, about 51 percent of the transplanted trees are palms. The rest include crape myrtles, buttonwoods and many other varieties.
To assess the success of its tree-planting program, FDOT awarded Koeser grant funding to study how well the transplanted trees survive and thrive.
Koeser and his team surveyed 2,711 trees along rural and urban stretches of the state’s highways. They found that more than 98 percent established themselves. That’s another way of saying the trees have survived the hardships of planting and are growing into the surrounding landscape.
‘The establishment rate is among the highest on record,’ said Koeser, a faculty member at the UF/IFAS Gulf Coast Research and Education Center in Balm, Florida…
Brad Buck is with the University of Florida.”
— Brad Buck, University of Florida in the Villages News
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