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   Home