難逃一劫:鳳凰木

Scenes

-        No Escape from a Destined Calamity:  Flame of the Forest (Delonix regia)

時移勢易，要胸襟長期寬宏，容納一個外來者可不容易．近幾年香港多個地區都出現市民舉報樹木伸出公共空間而勒令修繕樹冠的個案，今次介紹的九龍塘區的鳳凰木最終也難逃一劫．

鳳凰木樹冠廣闊，枝條眾多，要做修剪便需要斬去大量枝條，有很高難度．圖中鳳凰木有過半樹身伸出牆外，要合乎官大人的標準，便要整棵移除，更是難上加難．

現時沒有一個明確指引如何修理樹木，當業主害怕官威難犯，便會一次過大型修剪，一了百了．至於公眾是否安全，樹木會否死亡，這卻不是業主和官員所關心的課題．

Incidentally passed by some buildings and noticed that there were wall openings allowing trees to grow out from.  Trees have been there long before the buildings.  The owners did not want to destroy the tree and willingly cut a hole on the wall.  The breadth of mind to put aside differences so as to seek common ground can be easily seen by all.

Times have changed.  It is hard to be tolerant extendedly to accommodate an outsider.  In the last few years, there have been complaints from the public in various districts that trees have reached out to public space and fixing up of tree canopy was to be coerced.  The Flame of the Forest (Delonix regia) in Kowloon Tong cannot escape from this fate.

The crown of Flame of the Forest is broad with many branches.  To prune it will require chopping off a lot of branches which is very difficult and laborious.  As shown in the picture, more than half of its body has jutted out of the wall.  In order to meet the government standard, the whole tree must be removed which is all the more difficult.

At present, there are no clear guidelines on how to prune trees.  When the owners are in dread of the difficult authority, they will do a one-off large-scale pruning to end all the troubles.  It is neither the concern of owners nor the authority as to public safety or if the tree will die.

*translated by Mary Chung

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