Re: 1,230 year old pond cypress found in TX   greentreedoctor
  Apr 27, 2004 07:21 PDT 
This week I had a short project in Orange, TX and got to see some pretty interesting trees. The most significant is a Pond Cypress that has been cored and aged at around 1230 years. Silvics Manual Volume 1-Conifers and Volume 2-Hardwoods

This spp. is not supposed to be west of the Mississippi according to experts. I failed to get a pic but having some sent to me. it sits at edge of a bayou and partially in water and not very tall.. think I was told a 17'+ circumference.

SR
Texas
RE: Pond Cypress Age   Dee & Neil Pederson
  May 05, 2004 04:53 PDT 


Dear ENTS,

I talked with Joy Young at LSU about the old pond cypress. She is
the person who worked on the reported 1200 years old tree.

The old age is an extrapolated age; the tree is hollow. It was
necessary to estimate tree age for legal reasons it seems. Joy noted
how (in)accurate that could be. She did mention she has a couple of
trees that look promising, that look to be in the 1000 year age range.

The rings in cypress are a bear. She said they have, "Lots of those
lovely merging/sorta missing/not quite there unless you have a really
good imagination type rings." The Army Corp seems interested in pond
cypress so there may be some crossdating and a full study of pond
cypress in the near future.

It looks like pond cypress will join bald in the 1000 year age class
sometime soon.


Neil