Maryland Eastern Shore   Darian Copiz
  Dec 06, 2005 14:58 PST 

On November 19 I visited Wye Island Natural Resources Management Area.
The island is on the Delmarva peninsula on Maryland's eastern shore of
the Chesapeake Bay in Queen Anne's County, not far from where the former
national champion white oak, the Wye Oak, used to stand. The island is
situated between two tidal rivers that feed into the bay. For over 300
years it has been mostly in private ownership. At one time half the
island was owned by Maryland's third governor. Now, most of the island
is managed by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

The portion of the island that is of particular interest is a 30 acre
linear tract of land known as Schoolhouse Woods. The stand is about 500
feet wide and half a mile long, it begins at a dirt road and ends at a
small embayment. There are open fields on either side of the woods with
very little transition between the fields and the woods. Mature trees
extend right up to the edge of the stand with some of the largest trees
(although not the tallest) located close to the edge. The understory is
fairly open and the many large trees with high branching crowns create a
very nice patch of woods. There are no signs of logging, and apparently
many of the trees are supposed to be over 200 years old. Oaks are the
dominant species. One species of oak was especially dominant, but
unfortunately I am not entirely certain of it's identity. I am leaning
toward Quercus pagoda (Q. falcata var. pagodafolia). Other oaks
occuring in the woods are Q. michauxii and Q. alba - there may be more.
Other species were Liquidambar styraciflua, Liriodendron tulipifera,
Carya cordiformis, Acer rubrum, Fagus grandifolia, and Pinus taeda. I
measured an example from each of these except for the beech and pine.
There were more species in the stand, but I did not measure enough to
yield a Rucker Index. Since I am generally more impressed by girth,
such trees were generally the ones that caught my eye. These
measurements are based off of about an hour or so spent in the woods.

Acer rubrum 8' 11" 99.4'
Carya cordiformis 8' 5" 128.2'
Liquidambar styraciflua 10' 4" 103.0'
Liquidambar styraciflua 8' ?" 110.7'
Liriodendron tulipifera 11' 1" 121.8'
Quercus alba 11' 2" 128.3'
Quercus michauxii 17' 7" 107.4'
Quercus pagoda?         16' 6" 132.8'
Quercus pagoda?         18' 7" 114.8'

There were quite a few large trees of what I have called Quercus pagoda.
These were also impressive because of the high branching and the few,
but large limbs. I'm sure heights could easily increase and more
species could definitely be measured. It is interesting to keep in mind
that this site is located east of the Chesapeake Bay and is flat, so it
does receive the brunt of storms that come tearing across the bay. The
eastern shore is agricultural land and does have a good share of state
champions.

In the open field to the south of Schoolhouse Woods there is a large
American holly. The holly has a fence around it and a sign that reports
it as being over 250 years old. Two large branches have broken off from
it sometime in the past, but it is still the most impressive holly I
have seen. Unlike other large hollies I have seen it has a single
straight trunk with the growth form reminiscent of an oak grown in the
open. It is quite a spectacular tree. I do have pictures, but these
won't be available anytime soon. Although the numbers fall shy of being
the state champion, this tree is much more impressive than the official
champion which I have also seen. Measurements are: 10' 5" cbh, 45'
hgt., 50' spd.

Darian
RE: Maryland Eastern Shore   Darian Copiz
  Dec 07, 2005 13:17 PST 
Will, ENTS,

This was my second time visiting the location and I'm sure I will again,
but don't know how soon that will be. One reason I was uncertain of the
ID is that the bark did not seem very cherry like. Next time I visit I
will need to spend more time on identification and measuring. Related
to the Pennsylvania discussion, there are probably enough old private
estates on the Eastern Shore that still have some big trees on their
grounds. I visited one that alone had three state champions. I also
heard of another one that was supposed to have the biggest patch of old
growth on the Eastern Shore but was going to be subdivided. Hopefully
the trees are still there.

Darian



Will Blozan wrote:
 
Sweet!

An open crown with huge (but few) branches sounds like cherrybark oak.
Someone recently told me about this site and it was on my list to visit.
Do you plan to go back?

Will
RE: Maryland Eastern Shore   Darian Copiz
  Dec 07, 2005 13:18 PST 

Bob, ENTS,

My other choices were Q. falcata and I considered Q. velutina as well.
As far as velutina goes, I'm not sure how similar the leaves can be to
falcata, but is my understanding that velutina has very variable leaf
shape. The bark looked most like that of either falcata or velutina but
rougher, although not scaly like a cherry. Buds were slightly angled
and somewhat hairy. On a previous visit to the site I had observed a
small amount of standing water and the site in general is fairly low.
Q. michauxii and Carya cordiformis hint at slightly wetter conditions,
but there is also beech, white oak, and tulip tree. The lowland habitat
of the site, the leaves having more lobes than typical of falcata, and
something not quite seeming right about the bark is what steered me
toward cherrybark oak. Unfortunately I don't have prior experience with
cherrybark, so I don't have anything to compare to.

Darian



Robert Leverett wrote:
 
Darian,

    Good to hear from you. Fine report. With reference to your tentative
ID of Q. falcata var. pagodafolia, what might have been your other
choice(s)? I'm a fan of Cherrybarks. I wish we had them in New England.

Bob