Some numbers from Princeton NJ   wad-@comcast.net
  Jul 26, 2005 19:44 PDT 
ENTS

Had the day off today and it was going to be over 100 degrees by the heat index, so I decided to go measure trees!! I headed up to Princeton Nj and met up with my pal Megan Varnes, who is the curator of the Morven house gardens. Morven was home to NJ's governors until the 1980's http://www.historicmorven.org/

We measured some trees on the grounds to include:
Fagus sylvatica var. cuprea, Aesculus flava, and Pinus strobus. The trees were not anything spectacular, but they wanted the numbers for their records. 

pine_emperess_tree_mix2.jpg (50286 bytes)  Paulownia growing out of a white pine
In the pics you can see a "Pinus tomentosa", but before you get out Dirr. It is a Paulownia that grew in a cavity of a white pine and eventually took it over. Truly invasive!!

We then walked over to Princeton and gave ourselves the self guided tour of the campus. We found:

dawn_redwood_princeton2.jpg (43576 bytes)  Metasequoia from Princeton, Megan Varnes in the pic

Metasequoia glyptostroboides (planted as a 6' whip in 1948)
15.8x108.6 with a 51' avg spread. (biggest I have ever measured of this species)

tulip_princeton_full2.jpg (47325 bytes)   tulip_princeton2.jpg (49269 bytes)Tuliptree at Princeton

Liriodendron tulipifera
16.7x111.7 with an avg spread of 91'


taxus_princeton2.jpg (43116 bytes) Taxus baccata

11x53.8 with avg spread of 48' the most massive yew I have ever seen! and measure at 4.5' too. it was an upright tree form that did split into three leaders around 6-7' judging by the seams. The branches didn't actually split until 10-12'

We then headed to Marquand park http://www.princetontwp.org/marquand.html

marquand_red_oak_17b.jpg (47547 bytes)  Marquand 17.5x107.6 red oak

Here we found some very impressive native specimens. Almost enough for a rucker index.

Magnolia acuminata
13.8x105 with avg spread of 71'

Liriodendron tulipifera (there were over a dozen tulips in the 100-130' range)
12.5x126.4

Quercus alba
11.4x110.8

Fagus grandifolia
12.1x98.3'

Liriodendron tulipifera
12.3xcouldn't see top, but was more than likely similar to the one above.

Quercus rubra
13.5x108.8

Quercus rubra
17.5x107.6

Pinus strobus
9.4x104.4

Fraxinus americana
11.3x109.9

Pinus strobus
10.7x103.4

A seven species rucker came to 109.1

Other interesting specimens included:

Franklinia altamaha
Quercus nigra
Taxodium distichum
Magnolia macrophylla
Magnolia virginiana
Sequoiadendron giganteum
and many specimen introduced species.

The natural area where most of the big trees were had an open understory that was mostly escaped introduced species to include periwinkle, pachysandra (the bad kind) norway and japanese maple. There were many large Rosebay rhodies that I had to fight through, which possibly gave me some insight to what NC is like.

Except for the heat, it was a great day! 

Scott