Most Chiang Mai folk have heard of the Mango Rains, namely a bout of rain coming at the time mango trees ( Mangifera spp.) grown for fruit flower.
This event, recently a matter of furious debate via Farcebook.com, according to Pim Kemasingki’s weather guru comes in “late Feb/early March”, not at the start of April.
What is less known is the local story that a profuse flowering portends fierce gales. So now we have them at the beginning of April: The Mango Gales as evidenced by this tree fall outside the Maths building at Chiang Mai University.
However a morning tour today of the campus found no other casualties. None of the big Payom (Shorea roxburghii), Yang (Dipterocarpus alatus) or Takien (Hopea odorata) trees, some three times the height of this Don Sai (Ficus sp.) wind victim, appeared to suffer damage.
So why did this fall? Perhaps the ferocity of the gales are, as scientists warn us, due to the heating climate. But looking at the base of the upturned tree it appears that a root fungus may also have weakened the tree. Let’s ask CMU to bring in a tree pathologist to advise.
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