Boca Grande Banyan Allée
By David Driapsa
David Driapsa conducted a Historic American Landscapes Survey of the century-old Banyan tree (Ficus benghalensis) allée in the town of Boca Grande on Gasprilla Island in SW Florida. David’s team included fellow landscape architects Elena Pascarella and Bill Lutrick. Elena worked with David to measure and record the trees. Bill is a large format photographer working closely with David to record his projects in photographs. David works with the National Park Service to enter his documentation into the Library of Congress.
The Boca Grande Banyan allée is one city-block long and originally consisted of 26 trees, with 13 planted on each side of the street 25 feet on center and 38 feet apart across the street. Twenty-one trees remain, including two small trees replanted following damage caused by hurricanes.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation featured these Banyan trees as landmarks in Landslide 2007: Heroes of Horticulture.
These trees are a historic landscape feature remaining from the early development of Boca Grande. Documentation has not revealed who planted the trees or when. Landscape architect Carl Rust Parker prepared a master plan in 1914 proposing the planting of street tees to help transition the gritty railroad town to an island resort for the wealthy. At that time, employees of Boca Grande Land Company planted palm and tree allées of differing species along the streets of Boca Grande. It is likely that these Banyan trees were planted as part of that project. Photographs made for the Olmsted Brothers Landscape Architects in 1925 show another Boca Grande street that was lined with these so-called rubber trees. Those trees are no longer extant.
Banyan trees create a massive canopy of foliage. For example, the Banyan tree in Fort Myers at the Thomas Edison Winter Estate, planted in 1925, is 300 feet in diameter. These trees produce aerial roots from the limbs and grow down to the ground forming stilt-like trunks that support the ever increasing weight of limbs as the tree grows larger.
Hurricanes, tropical storms, and street flooding have impaired the Boca Grande Banyan tree allée. Heavy trimming to repair damage caused by hurricanes has resulted in internal rotting of the trunks beginning at the pruning cuts. Annual structural pruning and removal of aerial roots has rendered large limbs unsupported by new trunks to carry the weight of the canopy.
The Banyan tree allée on Banyan Street in Boca Grande stands mostly intact as a reminder of resort town development during the late pioneer era of SW Florida. Will the trees survive as an allée for another century? HALS documentation preserves a record and raises an awareness of this significant historic feature of the cultural landscape.
David J Driapsa Landscape Architect
(239) 591-2321
Please visit www.davidjdriapsa.com for more information
Registered Professional Landscape Architect, Florida LA0001185
(C) Copyright 1993-2016 David J Driapsa