The latest newsletter from the Illinois Native Plant Society (The Harbinger) just came and the front page featured the national champion Shumard Oak (Q. shumardii), that is the biggest tree of that species in the country located outside of Anna IL. The trunk has a circumference of 27.7 feet, a height of 96 feet, and a spread of equal distance, giving it a total score of 452 (there is a formula for scoring big trees.). And if you like big trees, here's one from the Plant Postings blog the Angel Oak (Q. virginiana) in South Carolina; it's one of the biggest, oldest living things in North America.
2 comments:
Thank you for highlighting these big trees. It is bittersweet to look at them, though, thinking of all the majestic trees that have been lost to lumbering or simple destructive progress in the last 400 years.
Funniest directions were the restaurant is 150 meters west of the big tree in the corner of the park (San Jose, Costa Rica); walked around the entire park and no big tree, which had been gone for a couple of decades, but it's memory hung on. Had to ask where the big tree had been.
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