Roots are more or less the life blood of a tree, and while small damage by itself won’t kill it (to my knowledge) it opens it up way more severely to pests and “infection”, promptly killing the plant.
*I’m not a botanist, this is an answer based off of my “common knowledge”.
Many trees can regrow quite drastically when cut back. Even stumps resprout in various tree species. But fungal infections can really take a toll on trees, so any wound is certainly a risk. So there is some truth to the meme, it is just hyperbolic.
Is this true to some extent? I’ve always lived in places where oaks aren’t natives or abundant
Roots are more or less the life blood of a tree, and while small damage by itself won’t kill it (to my knowledge) it opens it up way more severely to pests and “infection”, promptly killing the plant.
*I’m not a botanist, this is an answer based off of my “common knowledge”.
Please use this for better sources or salted information: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak
Many trees can regrow quite drastically when cut back. Even stumps resprout in various tree species. But fungal infections can really take a toll on trees, so any wound is certainly a risk. So there is some truth to the meme, it is just hyperbolic.