Central Midwest Gardening: Fall RU 09-Plant swap, 1 by shortleaf

shortleaf wrote:
Hi EvaMae,
a tree can stand as the champion for decades. Unfortunately, things can happen unexpectedly but theres usually a very similar tree just waiting. Oh yeah, many different trees and plants are champions - http://www.mdc.mo.gov/forest/IandE/MOChampionTrees/index.htm... Only native plants are champs far as I know.
I've never nominated a state champion tree, but I've visited several, and at least 2 that come to mind are national champions, the Pumpkin Ash at Big Oak Tree State Park (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v243/w4i0a/BigOakTreeState...) and the Bur Oak (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v243/w4i0a/MOstatechampion...) south of Columbia. Actually, I wanted to nominate a Cherrybark Oak tree (its the tree and me together in the photo below) a few years ago, but I waited too long, apparently an even larger Cherrybark Oak has been nominated.
I edited my post above to include my photobucket album of photos that I took today of that Pawpaw.
Will