Stefan was driving, taking me on a tour of avocados in South Africa, but he took a turn on a dirt road into a banana plantation. We got out of the truck and I followed him into the dark and humid canopy of green acres and acres of Dwarf Cavendish plants. We walked through the leaf litter. I couldn’t see anything but bunches and leaves of bananas.

Then some light, then a clearing, and a majestic old avocado tree.

A beautiful avocado tree standing in the middle of bananas. It was like this:

. . . and then?

Why was an avocado tree in the middle of a commercial banana farm?

The land was all avocados before it turned to bananas, Stefan told me. The farmer had spared this one tree because it was so healthy. Many of the rest of the avocados, planted around the 1920’s, had become sickly or died. Not this one, and he couldn’t cut down such a survivor.

. . . and then?

First you admire this tree that has escaped the chainsaw. Its immense size, its health and longevity, its position supervising the lowly bananas.

But from there you might think, “This tree is trying to tell us something. It has something to give. It is different from others.” Especially you think this if you are Stefan.

Stefan Koehne is now semi-retired, but his full-time job for decades was to find new avocados, to test rootstocks, cultivars, and cultivation techniques for Westfalia Fruit. He knows that the composition of this tree in the bananas might, on one hand, be uniquely suited to thrive in the conditions of this location, but on the other hand, it might be hardier more generally and able to survive and thrive elsewhere better than other trees as well.

What if . . . ?

Avocado trees can be cloned, so Stefan could test it in different locations. If it thrived elsewhere too, then it could be used as a base, a foundation upon which other trees could be built. It could serve as a rootstock to help grow other fruiting varieties on top (say Hass, Fuerte, GEM, etc.). People might be able to grow whole farms of productive and long-lived trees upon the stock of this one.

In other words, the tree should not only be preserved in place. It can be a bigger gift than that. It should also be propagated and shared with others.

In fact, Stefan has already collected material from this tree and propagated it and begun testing it.

Alongside his wife Sylvie, Stefan has gone through this process with other finds many times. For example, together they shepherded one tree called Dusa (also called Merensky 2) through a couple decades of intensive testing in different locations before it proved so worthy that it was patented and is now the most widely cloned avocado rootstock in the world, including in California.

(My post on avocado rootstocks.)

Survivor trees

Later on this day last month, during my avocado tour with Stefan, he showed me other “escape” or “survivor” trees.

Super trees

And he also showed me some “super” trees. These are trees that are not only healthy and long-lived like the survivor trees above, but have been grafted (to e.g., Hass or Fuerte) and also make lots of fruit, far more fruit year-after-year than other trees in a particular grove.

Have you ever encountered a “survivor” or “super” avocado tree? I keep an eye out for these types of trees in Southern California, and I tell Stefan or someone skilled like Stefan so that these trees can be stewarded. It would be a shame to not pass on the good attributes of such trees.

Back to the avocado in the bananas

This is Stefan standing at the trunk of the avocado tree inside the banana plantation:

Once I was done marveling at the tree, in order to get back to Stefan’s truck on the road, we had to walk back through the dense forest of banana plants.

On the walk, Stefan stopped me and pointed down at a track in the mud: “Hippo.”

Thank you for your support of my Yard Posts so I can keep them coming and keep them without ads.

All of my Yard Posts are categorized and listed here.