The Survivor Tree of the 9/11 Memorial

This tree is on the list for what it survived, not for how long it has lived. It is a Callery pear, a species planted along city streets by the thousand, and in October 2001 it was found in the wreckage at Ground Zero with its roots snapped and its branches burned and broken. NYC Parks took it away and nursed it back to health. In 2010 it came home, replanted on the plaza of the National September 11 Memorial, where it stands today among the visitors who come to read the names. How old it is, nobody has settled, and the accounts do not agree. Some place it in a row of pears planted on the World Trade Center plaza in the 1970s, which would make it about fifty. The New York Public Library's 2020 list of the city's famous trees called it 20 to 25 years old. Neither is a planting record for this tree, so we leave the age open. If you know, tell us. What the tree does now is give. Every year seedlings grown from it go to communities that have lived through a tragedy of their own; one was dedicated at the New York City Fire Museum on Spring Street in June 2019. At the tree itself the Memorial hands out free weather-resistant tags so you can leave a message on it. Come in April and it is in white blossom.