It’s the trees. The trees get me every time.

When you walk the sidewalks of Fairhope, Alabama, it’s the trees that impress you most. It’s not the upscale homes, nor the Mayberry-like storefronts, which all give you the impression that you have fallen into a Rockwellian planned urban development.

No. It’s the live oaks.

They tower over the byways like ancestors. Trunks as thick as Buicks. Tall as ferris wheels. Giant, spidery arms, draping over roadways, intertwining in a giant web, letting tiny slivers of sunlight between their fingers.

Their bark is covered in brilliant green resurrection ferns, which grow directly into the gnarled skin of each tree.

Resurrection ferns do not steal water and nutrients from the oaks; they absorb nutrition from the air. During drought, the ferns conser

See Full Page