Ents, While Will and Jason were starting the climb, I had a little time to look around the surrounding forest. Basswood, silverbell, buckeye, and beech with smaller numbers of white ash, tuliptree, sugar maple, and black birch make up the overstory on the surrounding slopes. The forest's age, likely 100 years or slightly less, makes the presence of mature individuals of shade tolerant and generally slower growing species like buckeye, sugar maple, and beech surprising. The dominance of those three species plus scattered spicebush and silverbell in the cove's understory is more typical of second-growth rich cove sites. Most of the herbaceous layer had died back, but Christmas fern and intermediate wood fern were abundant evergreen herbs. A few toothworts and chickweeds were also scattered around the forest floor, and various remnants hinted that the growing season herbaceous layer includes goldie's fern, sweet cicely, maidenhair fern, goldenrod (probably Solidago curtisii), and foamflower. Rich cove forests commonly feature all of those species with the exception of goldie's fern, which is restricted to slightly richer sites and is scarce in the Smokies.
I also had a chance to measure a couple other trees farther up the cove. A beech came out at 121.7', and a buckeye with a slender crown growing next to one of the 170'+ tuliptrees is 143'+. Tall buckeyes, like tall individuals of most late successional species, are usually found in old-growth forests, so this buckeye may be one of the fastest growing ones. Still working on a name for the tuliptree. Jess On Sun, Dec 21, 2008 at 10:24 AM, Will Blozan <[email protected]> wrote: > ENTS, > > > > While many of you northerners were hunkered down in a snowy mess, Jess > Riddle, James Parton, Jason Childs and I went into the Bradley Fork > watershed yesterday to climb and tape-drop the super tuliptree Jess found in > 2006. I lasered the tree this past September, and as it was a contender for > the tallest known specimen a climb was more than justified. > > > > http://www.nativetreesociety.org/fieldtrips/gsmnp/bradleyfork/bradley_fork_tuliptree.htm > > > > The heavy rains of the past week had Bradley Fork swollen to a formidable > torrent. Our usual crossing spot was underwater so we had to cross by other > means. Jess and I chose a slippery hemlock log, Jason rock-hopped and walked > across some toppled rhododendron, and James simply walked through. On the > way out we choose to walk upstream to a bridge… > > > > Jess crossing the log… > > > > And James just crossing! > > > > We hauled the gear up the cove to the tree. The first limb was 85 feet up > and the ground sloped so the initial line set was difficult without a > slingshot (which we should have brought…). Four LONG pitches later I made it > to 160 feet which was as high as I was comfortable going in the young tree. > Jason brought up a 17 foot pole with which I was able to reach the top for > the height determination. Jess scouted the other tops so we had the correct > one and we set the tape straight up and down. > > > > Looking down from 160 feet. Jason is barely visible in white helmet. > > > > Jason working his way up. > > > > The final tape reading was 181.35 feet, just 7 inches less than my 181.9' > laser shot in the summer. I am still amazed at the accuracy of the low-cost > ENTS sine method. As a bonus, we discovered this tree has multiple tops over > 180' and the highest recorded liana in the eastern US; Virginia creeper was > found to reach 166.5 feet! > > > > View up into the highest top. > > > > This climb confirms or solidifies several important current facts: > > > > This tree is the tallest known tuliptree, and sole representative member of > the "180 Club" > > Tuliptree is the tallest eastern hardwood > > Tuliptree is the only hardwood in the east to break 180 feet tall > > Tuliptree is currently the tallest native hardwood in North America > > > > > > > > > > The motley crew: Will, Jason, James and Jess at the base of the tree > > > > A tree of such significance needs an appropriate name. I'll leave that up to > Jess! > > > > Will F. Blozan > > President, Eastern Native Tree Society > > President, Appalachian Arborists, Inc. > > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org You are subscribed to the Google Groups "ENTSTrees" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
