ENTS,

Over the last two weekends I've been spending some time measuring American hollies in two parks in southeastern MA.  The first park is Nasketucket Bay State Reservation in Mattepoisett.  This park contains 209 acres along the Bay and it has only been around since 1999.  I visited this park the last two Saturdays.  The land is fairly flat here and right up against the Ocean.  Red maples are the most common trees and they are present nearly everywhere.  White pines are also common throughout the park and on the wetter sites black tupelo is very common.  In one wet area I saw several yellow birches as well.  In the upland areas, which are only slightly higher than the wet areas, scarlet and white oaks as well as sassafras and hollies are very common.  

Images #2 and #3 are of the 3.67' x 52.5' tree at Nasketucket.

Here are the hollies that I measured:

3.74'@2' x 42.9'  (3.85')
4....@1.25' x ?  (4.97') less than 40' tall
2.60' x 50.1'
3.24' x 53.4'
3.30'@2' x 60.4'  (3.67')
3.38' x 54.4'
3.67' x 52.5'
4....@2.5' x 47.9'  (4.93')
3....@3.75' x 42.8'  (3.88')
2.54' x 52.1'
3....@2.75' x 46.1'  (3.88')
3....@3.75' x 51.2'  (4.24')
3.36' x 48.4'
3.29'@4' x 47.5'  (3.33')
3....@3.75' x ?  (3.63')  very short, maybe only 30', close to Ocean
4....@3.25' x 45.5'  (4.97')

The numbers in parentheses are the girths at breast height for trees that were more slender at some point below 4.5'.

The second park that I visited was Lowell Holly Reservation on the Cape.  This park is older (1942) and a little smaller (135 acres).  Part of the park is in Mashpee and part is in Sandwich.  I only visited this park once, a week from last Sunday.  Much of this park is a peninsula that sticks out into a lake and the resulting narrowing of the lake is so substantial that the two bodies of water have been given separate names.  The land in this park is generally higher and drier than the other park, but there are a couple of nice wetlands full of red maple and black tupelo.  Unlike the previous park these wetlands are clearly defined and fairly small.  Upon first entering the park, white pine, scarlet, white and black oak are common, but these gradually give way to more and more pitch pine and beech as you move towards the peninsula.  One small portion of the peninsula is a nearly pure stand of beech.  I didn't see any sassafras or yellow birch, but black
 birch are fairly common, especially near the wetlands.  The American hollies are mostly found on the peninsula and many (most?) were planted by the previous owners.  They are now generally growing in a forested situation but some were clearly growing in the open in the past.

#1 is of the 5.17' x 49.8' tree at Lowell Holly Reservation

2.47' x 55.3'
2.99'@4' x 57.9'  (3.08')
5.29' x 40.3' three fused trunks
3.33' x 45.9'
5.17' x 49.8'
4.08' x 52.6'
2.84' x 59.0'
4.17' x 54.2'
2.82' x 54.1'
3.42' x 60.2'

Over the two weekends the top ten tallest trees were:
60.4'
60.2'
59.0'
57.9'
55.3'
54.4'
54.2'
54.1'
53.4'
52.6'
mean = 56.15'

The fattest ten were:
5.17'
4.63'
4.51'
4.17'
4.13'
4.08'
3.75'
3.75'
3.74'
3.74'
mean = 4.17'
This does not include the fused tree.

If Rucker's '73 rule' is applied to estimate the girth at 4.5' for those trees that were slimmer at some point below breast height then the following girths and hypothetical girths are the ten fattest.

5.17'
4.17'
4.08'
4.07'
3.82'
3.67'
3.63'
3.58'
3.58'
3.42'
mean = 3.92'

I suspect that at least some of the estimated girths are a bit on the small side based on some measurements I made of hollies that were not fatter at breast height than at some lower level.

One such tree was 3.38' @ 4.5' and 3.56' @ 2' and another was 3.67' @4.5' and 3.84' @ 2'.  Compare this to the nearby holly that was 3.67' @ 4.5' and 3.30' @ 2'.  According to the '73 rule' the hypothetical gbh of the last tree should be 2.805', but if the proportions are more similar to the other two trees it should be around 3.14'.  In other words, gbh based on the '73 rule', if I figured correctly, should be 85% of the girth at 2' but the gbh of the two 'normal' hollies was about 95% of their girth at 2 feet.

I have attached three images.  #1 is of the 5.17' x 49.8' tree at Lowell Holly Reservation while images #2 and #3 are of the 3.67' x 52.5' tree at Nasketucket.  

Doug