• Because of the damage it has sustained over the years, a large portion of this famed magnolia tree will have to be removed to keep the remainer standing.  Photo: Andrew Harnik, STF / Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Photo: Andrew Harnik, STF
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Because of the damage it has sustained over the years, a large portion of this famed magnolia tree will have to be removed to keep the remainer standing. 
Because of the damage it has sustained over the years, a large portion of this famed magnolia tree will have to be removed to keep the remainer standing. 
Photo: Andrew Harnik, STF

WASHINGTON - The enormous magnolia tree stood watch by the South Portico of the White House for nearly two centuries.

Its dark green, glossy leaves shaded politicians and heads of state.

Its ivory flowers bloomed through times of peace and war.

It is the oldest tree on the White House grounds, a witness to Easter egg rolls and state ceremonies, a resignation, a plane crash, all the tumult and triumph of 39 presidencies.

But the iconic magnolia is now too old and badly damaged to remain in place, the White House announced Tuesday.

At the recommendation of specialists from the National Arboretum, first lady Melania Trump called for a large portion of the tree to be removed this week.

The decision, first reported by CNN, comes after decades of attempts to hold the aged tree up with a steel pole and cables. Arboretum experts said that rigging is now compromised and that the wood of the magnolia's trunk is too delicate for further interventions. Any other tree in that condition would have been cut down years ago.

But this is not any other tree. According to White House lore, the stately evergreen was brought to Washington as a seedling by Andrew Jackson. The magnolia was a favorite tree of his wife, Rachel, who had died just days after he was elected. Jackson blamed the vicious campaign - during which his political opponents questioned the legitimacy of his marriage - for his wife's untimely death.

The tree became a fixture in White House events. Herbert Hoover reportedly took breakfast and held Cabinet meetings at a table beneath its sprawling branches. Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke with Winston Churchill in its shade. Richard Nixon strode past it as he left the White House for the last time after his resignation. In 1994, a Maryland man piloting a stolen plane clipped the tree before suffering a deadly crash against the White House wall. And for decades, the magnolia was featured on the back of the $20 bill.

According to White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham, the first lady requested that wood from the magnolia be preserved and seedlings be made available for a possible replanting in the same area.