Botanical Treasure #8. Champion tree: Taxodium distichum (US w42707)

From Plant Press Vol. 16 no. 2

This specimen of Taxodium distichum (US w42707) was once ranked as the fifth oldest living tree in the world and the overall state champion in Florida before it was destroyed by an arsonist on January 16, 2012.

Botanical treasure number 8 once stood as tall as a senator.

"The Senator" tree from Longwood, Florida, was the oldest bald cypress tree in the world at 3,500 years old, and standing at 118 feet, when it was destroyed by an arsonist in January 2012. The specimen of its wood was donated by the Seminole County Board of Commissioners and has been accessioned into the Department's Wood Collection. With over 47,000 specimens, this collection provides original source materials for applied research activities. Applied research results in improved products and technologies that, in turn, improve our standard of living.

Taxodium distichum (L.) Rich. is a slow-growing and long-lived conifer widely distributed along the Atlantic Coastal Plain, westward along the lower Gulf Coast Plain to southeastern Texas.

The Big Senator cypress, in Big Tree Park, in Longwood, Florida. Photo by Ebyabe (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons