The Most Popular Tree on Google?

An unassuming (or, shall we say, unremarkable) Toronto tree has become an unlikely tourist attraction. Sporting its own pin on Google and nearly 200 reviews, the small, twiggy Eastern Redbud has inspired everything from family trips to fan poetry after a handful of social media posts made it go viral, reports the Toronto Star.

The tree was planted by the city five years ago to replace a rotten one cut down for safety. When the city initially refused to plant the property owner’s desired species — the Redbud, which is native to the region — he put his most annoying and argumentative friend on the job, Mark Colley writes. Now the tree is named Rodney, in honor of the friend’s persistence.

“It’s like the best inside joke that nobody had to tell anyone else about,” the Star quotes one of Rodney’s owners saying. 

In a time when cities across the continent are desperately vying to save and expand their tree canopies, perhaps Rodney stands as a symbol of possibility. Or perhaps, as one Google reviewer wrote in stanza form, Rodney exists simply to help us learn “to live with grace and tranquility… To cherish the strength in being humble, and let our hearts in kindness rumble.”

Rodney has a 4.9 star rating on Google and can be found just south of Toronto’s Trinity Bellwoods neighborhood.