Candler Oak - Live Oak (Quercus virginiana)

The Candler Oak is a large old "Live Oak" (species: Quercus virginiana) located in Savannah, Georgia.

The newspaper image below is from Harper´s Weekly, January 14, 1865 when General Sherman captured Savannah. I´m not sure but I believe that the tree in the images is the Candler Oak.

The History of the Chandler Oak tree

• 1730 Candler Live oak starts to grow (approx. date)
• 1791 Georgia State Legislature grants land surrounding the mighty oak to be used for a seaman’s hospital
• 1803 hospital constructed and and remains in use until 1818.
• 1819 construction of the Savannah Poor House and Hospital on the land
• 1854 Hospital converted into the headquarters for the Medical College of Georgia.
  
• 1861 the hospital was used by the Confederacy during the Civil War.
• 1864 General Sherman captures Savannah and uses the hospital to treat his own soldiers and constructed a barricade around the tree to house wounded Confederate prisoners.
• 1930 site returned to service as the Warren A. Candler Hospital.
• 1980 Huntingdon II, Ltd. purchased the building where community health care organizations continued to operate until 2000.
• 1982 first preservation project of Savannah Tree Foundation initiated to save this historic tree which was under considerable stress and was not expected to survive more than another 20 years.
• 1984 A 6,804 square foot easement was established to protect the Candler Oak, which made history by being the first conservation easement on a single tree in the nation.
• 1985 asphalt was removed from the root area to revive the tree and a comprehensive schedule of maintenance.
• 2001 Candler Oak designated a Georgia Landmark and Historic Tree by the Georgia Urban Forest Council.
• 2004 Candler Oak nominated to the National Register of Historic Trees by American Forests
  

(information taken from http://www.savannahoffthebeatenpath.com/Tours/candler_oak.htm)

According to the sign at the site of the tree the Candler Oak is estimated to be 270 years old, have a spread of 107 feet, a circumference of 16 feet and a height of 50 feet.

Olive branches on US seals and coins

The Olive branch has long been a symbol of peace. Incorporated into the Great Seal of the United States is an eagle holding an Olive branch in its right talon. The seal was designed shortly after the United States declared its independence from England in 1776. The seal symbolizes both power and peace. The basic design of the seal has been incorporated into the seal of the President (with a few modifications), the seal of the Supreme Court, the seal of the Senate and many more.

Olive branches are also common on coins.

The lady "Liberty" is found on many coins and in some of them she is holding an Olive branch. The image above is the "Standing Liberty Quarter".

The Kennedy Half Dollar has the Seal of the President on its reverse side with the eagle holding the Olive branch.

Department of Defense seal is similar to the commemoration seal above. " Below the eagle a wreath of laurel to dexter and olive to sinister...The laurel stands for honors received in combat defending the peace represented by the olive branch" ( in Latin sinister means 'on the left side' and dexter means 'on the right side'.)

The three tree species that are very common on United States seals and coins are the Olive, the Laurel and the Oak.

Most Valued Tree Species

Submit Your Vote! ---->

What is the world´s most valued tree species?

Read my previous post about how trees are important to us and our environment.


Trees can be evaluated for their...

1. ornamental value (gardens, lawns, parks etc.)
   
2. environmental value (carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, pollution, etc.)
   
3. commercial value (timber, essential oils, etc.)
   
4. nutritional value (fruit, nuts, oil etc.)
   
5. medicinal value (natural medicines, bio-chemicals, etc.)
   
6. aesthetic value (aromatherapy, peaceful beauty, etc.)
7. practical value (shade, wind block, noise barrier, etc.)

I´ve listed some of the most popular trees of value in the poll located in the right column.

All things considered what is the most valued tree species in the world. Vote -->

The Importance of Trees

There are many ways in which trees can be valuable to us and to the environment as a whole. Here are a few of them...

• Trees provide food for us to eat. There are species of trees that provide fruit, nuts, starch, Olive oil etc.
• Trees provide sweets for us to eat as well. Chocolate comes from the Cocoa tree. Maple syrup is from the Sugar maple tree.
  
• Trees are used to make juices such as Apple, Orange, Lemon etc.
  
• Trees are used to make hot drinks. Coffee and Cocoa trees are the most well known but others such as the Linden are used for herbal teas.
  
• Trees provide spices to flavor our food and drinks with such as Cinnamon or Cloves.
• Trees are used to make fragrances. Mahogany is used as a base note in a good number of perfumes. Bay leaf or Cypress are used in the middle notes while trees such as Eucalyptus or Lemon are used in the top notes.
• Trees are the source of essential oils. Sweet Orange, Cedarwood or Blue Gum are sources of important essential oils.
• Trees are the source of medicines. A few medicinal trees are the Benjamin, Camphor or Rauwolfia.
• Trees are used in toothpaste. Natural XYLITOL from Birch trees is used in Squigle toothpaste.
  
• Paper is made from trees. The pulp that paper is made from comes mostly from softwood trees such as Poplar, Pine, Larch etc. With this would be included cardboard, carton, etc.
  
• Trees are also the source of rubber. Although the Ficus Elastica is called the rubber tree most rubber is made from the sap (called Latex) of the Para Rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis).
• Trees are used to make soap. Olive, Argan, Coconut, Cocoa and Brazilnut oil are all used to make hand soaps. One of the earliest trees used in the making of soap was the Cassia tree.
• Trees are also used in cosmetics make things such as exfoliators, lotions or toners.
• Trees are used in tattooing. Henna from Lawsonia inermis has been used for body art for thousands of years.
• Trees are used in aromatherapy. The Bergamot orange (Citrus aurantium ssp. bergamia) or Lemon scented gum (Corymbia citriodora) trees are fine examples.
  
• Trees are used to make musical instruments. One of the secrets of the violin resides in the wood it is made of. Spruce and Maple are two of the key woods.
  
• Trees are used to make tools. Many different hardwoods such as Oak are used to make axe and spade handles.
  
• Trees are used for firewood and cooking charcoal. The harder the wood the longer and hotter it burns. Holm oak is a great example.
  
• Trees are used to make homes and shelters for people and animals. Wherever trees are readily available they have been used to make homes and shelters. In the northwest United States Western Redcedar or Ponderosa Pine are used as timber for construction.
  
• Trees are used to make liquor. In Spain the acorns of Oak trees are used to make Acorn liquor.
• Trees are used to make clothing. In primitive tribal societies in Papua New Guinea the bark of several tree species was pounded into a thin semi-flexible cloth and made into skits and capes. Large leaves are also used to cover certain body parts by tucking the leaves into a belt.
• Baskets can be made from trees. One example is small baskets made from pine needles.
  
• Trees are used to make furniture. Pine and Fir wood is favored by the Northern Europeans while Oak, Beech or Walnut is used in countries such as Germany and Switzerland.
  
• Trees are an important source of shade. Some Ficus species provide an almost total blockage of the sunlight while others such as the Persian Lilac or Blue Jacaranda provide a more pleasant shade.
  
• Trees are used to make rafts, canoes and other small boats. Birch bark was used by native Americans on their canoes. The bark was stretched over a wood frame that was sometimes made of cedar.
  
• Trees are used in hunting. Yew trees have long been used for making hunting bows. Trees have also been used bow hunters who stand in elevated platforms to wait for their prey to pass. Young trees have also been used to make traps.
  
• Trees are used to make fences. Apart from fence post in Europe some tree species such as Holm oak or Ash are planted long fence lines to support and form part of the fence as living fence posts.
  
• Trees are used to as ornamental trees to beautify gardens, avenues and parks. The London plane is the arch-typical urban tree while trees such as the common cypress have been used to make tree "sculptures".
  
• Trees are important because they clean the air we breath. Many people don´t realize that the substance that trees are mostly made of (the carbon) comes not from the ground but from the air. Trees convert CO2 into oxygen that we need to breath.
  
• Trees stabilize hillsides and keep top soil from being washed away.
• Trees scrub carbon from the air and help store it.
• Trees help keep river courses from eroding into banks.
• Trees provide food and shelter to many species of birds and animals.
• Trees have important roles in many religious belief systems. Buddha is associated with the Sacred Fig tree.
  
• Trees are important national, state and local symbols. The Oak of Guernica is a very important symbol for the Basque people for example.
  
• Trees are historical landmarks.
  
• Trees stabilize the environment.
• Trees are used to make paper for books, magazines and newspapers.
• Trees are used to make artifacts and carvings. Carvings of masks, figurines, animals, idols, etc are common in most native cultures.
  
• Trees are used to make shoes. In Northern Europe wooden shoes called "Clogs" are made from Willow, Poplar, Birch, Beech and Alderwood.
  
• Trees have been used to make airplanes. The famous "Spruce Goose" giant airplane that is now on display at the Evergreen Aviation and Space museum in Oregon is made almost entirely of wood.
• The ground shells of the Black Walnut tree are used as a polishing abrasive and as an additive in well-drilling mud.
• There are trees that improve soil quality and can be used as natural crop boosters two examples are Cajanus cajan or Gliricidia sepium.
  

Submit your vote for the world´s most valued tree species at the top of the right column.

Ten Tallest Tree Species

#1 Coastal Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens)

• Hyperion: 379 feet (115 meters)
  
• Helios 376.3 feet
• Stratosphere Giant 370.5 feet
  
• Mendocino Tree: 368 feet

#2 Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans)

• Centurion: 101 meters
  
• Icarus Dream: 97 meters
• Mount tree: 96 meters
  

#3 Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)

• Doerner Fir”, (previously known as the Brummit fir), 99.4 meters
• Cathedral Grove: 76 meters (249 feet)

#4 Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis)

• Carmanah Giant: 96 meters (315 ft)
• Quinault rain forest (191 feet)
  
• Giant Spruce of Cape Perpetua (185 feet)

#5 Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum)

• Redwood Mountain Grove: 94.9 meters
  
• Diamond Tree: 87.2 meters
• Hart Redwood: 84.8 meters
• General Sherman: 84.2 meters

#6 Blue Gum (Eucalyptus globulus)

• Tasmania: 90.7 meters
  

#7 White Gum (Eucalyptus viminalis)

• Evercreech forest reserve: 89-91 meters

#8 Noble fir (Abies procera)

• Goat Marsh Research Natural Area: 89.9 meters ( Mt. St. Helens National Monument)

#9 Alpine Ash (Eucalyptus delagatensis)

• Tasmania - 88.7 meters
  

#10 Yellow Meranti (Shorea faguetiana)

• Tawau Hills Nation Park, Borneo: 88.3 meters
  

runner up - Shining Gum (Eucalyptus nitens)

• Tasmania - 84.4 meters
  

Tallest Hardwood Tree in the World

A new champion hardwood tree has recently been discovered in Tasmania, Australia. Standing at 101 meters tall the newly found Giant has been named "Centurion". The tree is a "Swamp Gum" (Eucalyptus regnans) and was discovered by Tasmanian forestry staff using an airbord "LIDAR" laser scanner.

While this tree is not the tallest tree in the world it is the tallest hardwood, the tallest flowering tree and the tallest tree in Australia. The world´s tallest tree is a Coastal Redwood by the name of "Hyperion" which is 114 meters (379 feet) tall. After the Coastal Redwood the Eucalyptus regnans in the world´s next tallest tree species.

The "Centurion" tree in Tasmania is located just 5 km from the Tahune airwalk. The discovery of this tree has been very exciting for forestry officials in Australia as it is the only hardwood tree in the world that stands more than 100 meters tall.

Other tall "Swamp Gum" trees in Australia are...

Icarus Dream - 97 meters
Mount Tree - 96 meters
Damocles - 93 meters
Medusa - 92 meters

50 American State Trees Trivia

Did you know that there are only 39 state tree species that compromise the 50 official state trees? This is due to the fact that some of the official state trees species are shared by more than one state.

The Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) is the state tree of no less than FOUR states! New York, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin all have the Sugar Maple as their state tree.

In addition there are three more tree species that are each claimed by three different states.

- Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee have the Tulip Poplar as their state tree.
- Connecticut, Illinois and Maryland have the White Oak as their state tree.
- Missouri, New Jersey and Virginia have the Flowering Dogwood as their state tree.

Five more trees are shared claimed by two different states

- Colorado and Utah have the Blue Spruce as their state tree.
- North Dakota, Massachusettshave the American Elm as their state tree.
- Florida, South Carolina have the Cabbage Palmetto as their state tree.
- Kansas,Nebraska have the Eastern Cottonwood as their state tree.
- Maine, Michigan have the Eastern White Pine as their state tree.

Mississippi has the Southern Magnolia as its state tree and Louisiana as the State Flower.

Three states have two official state trees.

- California (Giant Sequoia and Coastal Redwood)

- Nevada (Singleleaf Pinyon and Bristlecone Pine)

- New Jersey (Red Oak is the official tree and Flowering Dogwood is the memorial tree)

19 States have Evergreen conifers as their state trees

-10 are Pine trees
-4 are Spruce trees
-2 are Hemlocks
-1 is Redwood
-1 is a Douglas Fir
-1 is a Cypress

6 States have Oak trees

5 States have Maple trees

2 States have Cottonwoods

2 States have palm trees

Only one State has a fruit tree as the state tree (Texas - Pecan)

No state has the Western Red Cedar as its official state tree

There are no true firs (genus Abies) among the state trees (Douglas Fir is not a true fir)

All 39 official state tree species...

American Elm (2) Massachusetts, North Dakota

American Holly Delaware

Bald Cypress Louisiana

Blue Paloverde Arizona

Blue Spruce(2) Colorado, Utah

Bristlecone Pine Nevada

Cabbage Palmetto (2) Florida , South Carolina

Douglas Fir Oregon

Eastern Cottonwood (2) Kansas,Nebraska

Eastern Hemlock Pennsylvania

Eastern Redbud Oklahoma

Eastern White Pine (2) Maine, Michigan

Flowering Dogwood (3) Missouri, New Jersey, Virginia

Giant Sequoia California

Kukui Hawaii

Live Oak Georgia

Loblolly Pine Arkansas

Longleaf Pine North Carolina

Northern Red Oak New Jersey

Oak tree Iowa

Ohio Buckeye Ohio

Paper Birch New Hampshire

Pecan Texas

Pinyon Pine New Mexico

Plains Cottonwood Wyoming

Ponderosa Pine Montana

Redwood California

Red Maple Rhode Island

Red Pine Minnesota

Singleleaf Pinyon Nevada

Sitka Spruce Alaska

Southern Longleaf Pine Alabama

Southern Magnolia Mississippi

Sugar Maple (4) New York, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin

Tulip Poplar (3) Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee

Western Hemlock Washington

Western White Pine Idaho

White Oak (3) Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland

White Spruce South Dakota


Non-State territories official trees...

District of Columbia - scarlet oak (Quercus coccinea)

Puerto Rico - Ceiba or Kapok (Ceiba pentandra)

Guam – Ifil (Intsia bijuga)

Bonus: Did you know that the United States has a National Tree? The Oak tree (no species specified) is the national tree.

How many tree species in the world?

I have often wondered how many tree species there are in the world. You would think that in this modern age of technological advances and super computers it would not be too difficult to have an accurate count of how many kinds of trees exist at the present time. I say present time because many tree species have in fact gone into extinction already.

From what I can tell nobody knows for sure how many there are. This is partly due to the fact that there is not a universally accepted definition of what a "tree" is exactly. I tend to think of trees as big plants with roots, trunks and leaves but I guess this is too loose of a definition.

Some big plants that are NOT generally accepted as trees are Banana "trees" and Giant Bamboo.

We generally think of trees having just one main trunk. As a matter of fact this is usually a part of the definition of what a tree is. Well, how about the Banyan "trees" in India that have hundreds or even thousands of trunks? Did you know that there is a Banyan tree in Calcutta that has 2880 "trunks"! Actually they are "prop-roots" but in the case of this tree the main trunk was removed in 1925 but the tree lives on and now spreads out over an area that is 420 meters in diameter! It has almost three thousand trunks but no main trunk so is it a tree?

Anyway, back to the question of how many tree species there are in the world. I have read estimates that go all the way up to 100,000 but the number that looks most believable to me is 10,000. I got this number in a article by James E. Reeb entitled "Scientific Classification of Trees: An Introduction for Wood Workers".

Another estimate that sounded interesting was to take the total number of known plant species and then make an estimate of what percentage of these are trees based on smaller sample areas. Using this method one person that I read had estimated that there are 25,000 tree species (10% of the 250,000 plant species).

The number of tree species in North America is estimated at around 1,000 (also from the article by James E. Reeb). Europe is one of the continents with the least number of tree species.

Ginkgo petrified forest - Vantage Washington

While driving across Washington State recently I came across a sign that read "Ginkgo Petrified Forest - Next Exit". Seeing as I was in the most barren, dry and otherwise rather unbecoming area of the state you can imagine how the sign caught my eye. I had a bit of time to kill so I decided to take the exit and check out this "Petrified Forest" at Vantage Washington. I was interested not only in the "petrified" part but also in the "Ginkgo" part. I have profiled the Ginkgo tree and I was rather curious to see a petrified forest of them. (Ginkgos are a very rare species of tree that are only found growing wild in a small area of China. )

About three miles of the freeway I came across the "interpretive trail". Still no trees in sight, not even logs or any evidence of a "petrified forest", just Sagebrush and rocky (Basalt) ground as far as the eye could see. Camera in hand I started to make the circuit around the interpretive trail. The first four pictures in this post were taken as I walked along the trail.

As it turned out the "Petrified forest" was embedded in a layer of Basalt and only a few of the logs of have been exposed by erosion (these are rather large, complete logs I must add). These could be viewed along the trail although they are protected by some metal grates set in concrete. I guess they don´t want people to chip off pieces of the logs. The logs themselves are very impressive although they are not Ginkgo logs, except for ONE!. Along the path there are Spruce, Elm, Sequoia, Maple, Walnut and the one famous Ginkgo that gave the buried petrified forest its name.

The cross section below as well as the fully exposed log are found at the Ginkgo Gem Shop that is located near the interpretive center. This "rock" shop has a great collection of petrified wood and fossils from the local area as well as from all around the word.

Complete list of trees I have blogged