Hey all it is day three of Tree Week at Atlas Obscera. Before we get into today's story, I want to say if you

haven't listened to Monday's episode about Plant Explorer Frank Meyer, you are missing out. It is such a good story.

It is kind of a sad story. It has some incredible aspects of politics and agriculture and how it all works and and then you also

get to hear me stuffing some citrus into my mouth so that that one, maybe you can fast forward through that part.

Anyway, after you listen to this episode, go back and listen to that one. You will be glad you did.

Okay, here's today's story. Normally I avoid the tidal basin like

the plague during peak cherry blossom season. Every spring more than a

million people come to DC to see the city covered in pale pink

blooms and the crowds just really aren't my thing. But this year I made an exception.

I'm Michelle Cassidy, and this is Atlas Obscura,

a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places.

Today I'm paying my respects to a local slave. strange, incredible, and wondrous places.

Today I'm paying my respects to a local celebrity,

or if you'll allow me the pun, a local celebratory.

His name is Stumpy.

Later on we'll hear from Diana Hubble,

will take us to the Tier Gardens, a 500 year old park in the heart of Berlin,

where if you know where to look, you can find a tree with a surprising connection to a 60s R&B song.

I understand why this one got the attention and not the other one.

This one looks way more dead. It's much more. For the un-unitiated, Stumpy is a scraggly, scrungly little cherry tree,

with most of the trunk rotted away and just a few small branches poking out of its top.

If you can imagine a tree with a comb over that's a little bit what it looks like.

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