A super gnarly Live Oak
A super gnarly Live Oak
I found this remarkably old looking Quercus virginiana in eastern Orange county, in the Tosohatchee WMA. Rap sheet for older looking: extreme crown dieback, twisted knotty trunk, very weathered bark and all around appearance of having lived a hard difficult life. The main trunk appears to be long gone and the only surviving piece is much younger looking and smaller fork. The void space under the trunk is either extreme rot and/or the grade has eroded down since this tree's establishment. This tree is located right at the border between floodplain swamp and hydric hammock, a good spot for scour.
Re: A super gnarly Live Oak
Addy,
Wow, that's cool-looking. Thanks for posting,
Elijah
Wow, that's cool-looking. Thanks for posting,
Elijah
"There is nothing in the world to equal the forest as nature made it. The finest formal forest, the most magnificent artificially grown woods, cannot compare with the grandeur of primeval woodland." Bob Marshall, Recreational Limitations to Silviculture in the Adirondacks
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Erik Danielsen
- Posts: 898
- Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2014 5:46 pm
Re: A super gnarly Live Oak
Addy,
Thanks for posting- that really does have some serious gnarl factor. The subject of live oak ages has come up often in tree-interest groups on facebook recently, with of course the usual silly claims like the angel oak being 1500 years old, or even a tree somewhere in florida claimed to be 2500, in strong contrast to the 4-500 year cap on credible historic-record based or tree-ring based ages known to date. I'm always left thinking that the oldest live oak, wherever it is, must be a gnarled, more slowly grown individual of unexceptional size lingering unrecognized. Maybe it would look something like this.
Thanks for posting- that really does have some serious gnarl factor. The subject of live oak ages has come up often in tree-interest groups on facebook recently, with of course the usual silly claims like the angel oak being 1500 years old, or even a tree somewhere in florida claimed to be 2500, in strong contrast to the 4-500 year cap on credible historic-record based or tree-ring based ages known to date. I'm always left thinking that the oldest live oak, wherever it is, must be a gnarled, more slowly grown individual of unexceptional size lingering unrecognized. Maybe it would look something like this.
