I Met a Tree "Nut." Or rather; an "Acorn..."

With short notice during a roadtrip from which I've just returned, I had the pleasure of meeting our famous resident oak fanatic. I am grateful for his making allowances to accomodate.

My father and I were in the Midwest visiting relatives (and more importantly taking in a couple musicals at St. Louis' Muny Theatre). After having realized why my father fled his family in Illinois, it was time to find things to do. Guy showed me his arboretum and some of the greater local trees in his area. Guy betrayed a deep familiarity with local/Lincoln history more than your average red-blooded Illinois resident. He was a great tour guide at historical sites- I’ll bet it's his backup occupation if his career as tree nut extraordinaire falls through.

Who else says "Say Trees" when taking a picture?
He took a number of photos, especially after he discovered I can climb fairly well. I stole a few shots myself.

Filling in the gaps of my father’s Abraham Lincoln Education in the New Salem restoration:

And what other couple in Illinois has spanish moss at their home's entrance?

Looking down on our man from one of the few (correct me if it is the only) remaining native's trail-marker trees. An ancient tree bent down at an arch when it was a sapling. Pity I was silly enough not to take a more revealing angle. (not of Guy, of the tree, thank you.)

He looks right at home juxtaposed, eh? Like some sort of delirious squirrel.

It seems appropriate to wait for Guy's rebuttal before I post any more.
Kenton J. S.

It's good to be back. Away from the humidity and-

Great photo of Japanese Beetles. I can spot that metallic green body and those copper front wings a mile away it seems. There is going to be a new forum or something for "Bugs" here in the near future. You should add that great photo when the new area of the website debuts. Good job.

Glad you had fun! Did our little resident oak fanatic eat healthy heart food or was he pigging out on fast food on the run?

Hey- I defend his classy choice of fast food. Dairy Queen. It was good.
Look at the top tabs. Look next to Plant Files.

Japanese beetles: What is the deal with the back legs pointed outwards? It seems like their version of the middle finger to me, the obscene little scums.

Is it still Q. stellata if the leaves are pointed?

Maybe it is more of the welcome sailor gesture.

Bill

Looks a lot more like Quercus marilandica, JCO. Definitely not Q. stellata.

Just back from doing some lectures in Macomb tonight. Looks like JamesCo has been busy! Glad you made it home OK Kenton -- car trouble seems to run in the forum family (at least the ones who visit me) -- just ask Shortleaf.

Well, here is the opposite view, looking back up into one of the trees you were climbing. Note to others -- enlarge it and then look for the fly speck at the top of the photo, in one of our giant local bur oaks. He made it up there in the 15 seconds it took me to dig out my camera! I think he's part monkey and part Spiderman!

I'll post a couple more JamesCo pics tomorrow. It take 10 minutes via this slow connection to load each one, and I'm outa gas tonight. But be forewarned: one of the pics will be for Equil!

Guy S.

What a handsome fly up in that tree! So lithe! Almost looks as if he has become one with the tree. I think he must be Peter Parker!

For the record, you would never catch me that high up in a tree. My max is about 6', that's it. With my luck, I'd probably fall out of the tree and break something at the height he is at. Either that or I'd fall out of the tree and break somebody standing down there when I fell on them.

Whatchagot for me Guy? A nice photo of an American Yellowwood or something or lemme guess... here... could it be a Mimosa?

Yes, that was quite a harrowing 400 miles. Car trouble was in no short supply on that trip. I got about 75 miles from home and noticed a pin-hole leak in a radiator hose. When I got about 50 miles from Petersburg, Ilinois the starter quit. I left the car running the time I was there because if I turned it off it wouldn't start again.
It was a nice visit, I don't regret going at all, car parts go out.
When Guy was here on business I was taking him to his hotel and the alternator went out.
Tonite, on the way home from work I had to stop and fill up the radiator before my car overheated.
Hey, if it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all! LOL!
I have a lot of photos from then too if anyone would like to have a look.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v243/w4i0a/Starhill%20Forest%20Arboretum%20Gudgel%20Oak%20dedication/

Will

Great pictures of the Gudgel Oak, Will. I was interested by the branch "nubs" on it.

And someone should have warned me about Guy and his hexes to make car trouble. Actually, My S10 is spell-proof to a degree, so all that happened was a front headlight going out just before we arrived at Starhill.

I love this fastigiate Oak hybrid. What a great architectural plant.

That sucker was massive. (The Ingram Oak) You can only feel the sheer substance of such a thing if you climb it. Like standing on the unwavering brick floor up in a gothic cathedral. Other trees move ever so slightly or give ever so slightly. Anyhow...

Fly up a tree shoots ants on the ground.

A particularly huge Liriodendron in the Cemetary where rests (Ann, was it?) Lincoln's Girlfriend.

There was discussion once about Trees growing under asphalt/concrete.
If ever I install a parking lot, I will do what is done at the MO botanical. Clever, eh?

I thought I jsu tmight make it home with at least one dollar to my name, but alas, Guy told me about Forrest Keeling.

Also took a gander at this massive place:

Glenwood Canyon.
Almost home, away from the Chiggers. (Remeber how you joked about "just for the experience," Guy? I'm still itching. But well worth it.
K

Guy you need to do what they have out here in our montana forest canopy up on a ski area called Big Mountain. It takes the desire of people to climb trees and put them up there. They build sky bridges from on tree to another in an acre of tall Doug Firs. They have different locations to stop and learn about what the forest canopy does and how to best keep our forest healthy. Kind of of tourist attraction but all is taken down when the snow starts to fall. Kind of unique. Eagle nests, raptor perchs, what they see from this site etc.

Add a zip line and you have the #2 tourist attraction in central Illinois.

Bill

What is number one? StarHill? Or Equi's garage full of nuclear gerbil wheels? No, that's Northern IL...

Thanks James, the Gudgel Oak is a neat tree, I hope it lives on for many more years there. That was quite a trip you went on, Starhill, Lincoln's cemetery, MoBot you saw a bunch over there. I'd like to have seen more if I was in a better way at the time.
I remember that fastigiate oak coming up thru the bank's roof, an unusual piece of architecture. Actually, I'm kinda familiar with that bank, I spent a couple hours in the parking lot, in front of that tree, waiting for the sun to come up. That sounds strange but I couldn't find the Sternbergs' place in the darkness. I couldn't turn the car off because it wouldn't start and I couldn't sleep in the car for fear of succumbing to exhaust fumes. When daylight broke, I was the first one at the Gudgel Oak by about 3 hours (who can miss a 256 year old White Oak tree!), thats where I met Guy, he was the second one there. I took quite a few photos while I was there, I'd say hundreds. I have this one photo that I took in the parking lot of that bank while I waited for daylight.
Hey, we did Dairy Queen too! It was good. I also have an affinity for fast-food at times.
Speaking of tourist attractions there, Guy, how is the eerie Bur Oak face tree there doing?

Will

Ohhh...I got the willies just looking at that picture (the one looking down from the tree). Just a tad too high for my tastes...I must be getting old.

- Brent

So there really is a thing called a chigger? I have always heard about them but never seen any. Or maybe it is in the same family as Snipe?

Jeeez, you folks have been busy in your air-conditioned computer dens while I was outside working in the humidity!!!

I'm so sorry you had to get chiggers. But be reassured they will be gone in another day or two, leaving you only with fond memories (and scars). The massive tree was the Lyons bur oak. The Ingram white oak was the trail tree. Both date back to about 1730 according to increment cores.

Will, we went back to the Oak-Face tree, but I couldn't find the face. It was really eerie -- I've seen it only in that photo I took of it. I'm kinda spooked about it now!

Here are Kenton and his Dad with the Gudgel Oak, this time with feet firmly planted on the ground --

.. . and here is our Spiderman in the Ingram white oak, one of only two known surviving Indian trail marker trees in Illinois --

Please don't go steal this, but this is at the University's Arboretum in Urbana. Because I want to steal it some time.

I found my new favorite species of climbing tree there, too. It s even better than a Platanus.

'Mops' at the Master Gardener's extension garden in Urbana. "The Idea Garden." Have a look if you are passing through.

Did you climb any of the trees at U of I, that mops looks more my speed. Good thing your new favorite climbing tree isn't the ugly tree.

Bill



This message was edited Jul 26, 2006 11:06 PM

I want to see Kenton up the Gudgel Oak, now that one is a tough climb. Kenton is your favorite climber a costal redwood? The branching of the Sitka Spruce are like that and I would only climb one to escape a Grizzley. I'm sure my head would have many bumps on it in any rapid attempt.
Guy what trail (from where to where) does that oak direct? I have several trees that I have at an angle but never thought they could help me find Magetic North. Must be an Ironwood Oak. LOL
Oh yeah kenton don't steal that statue because I'm sure the medical students use it for a good example of a paticular surgery done on young male babies. Some of we surgeons are visual and need some firm examples. LOL

LOL! Yeah, the air conditioner is going strong in here. It is getting hot!
97 degrees F today and supposed to get hotter and stay hot for a while.
That is odd about the Oak-face tree, maybe the face will return when its gets cold!
I used to get chiggers more as a kid, when I played in tall grass.
Chiggers are really bothersome when they get in the unmentionables.
If I could get fingernail polish, I'd put that on a chigger spot and that would
smother them.

Will

You are facinating Guy you ask and ANSWER the same questions I always ask. I appreciate you. Steve
That is so cool to know or discover this tree and its purpose. Now When I walk in Iroquois country I will think a few years back.

I still think the natives ought to get out and continue the tradition.

Pity there aren't any Taxodium distichum around here. that is, until the one I have grows up. They were nice ones at U of I. Mind you, the Ginkgoes at Forest Park (St. Louis) were awfully nice. They are very solid in feel, like climbing a concrete tree.

There is always a reason when you find a park without "No overnight parking" signs:

Seeing the trees for the forest, eh Guy?

After reading your comments on your home page I updated mine. See you are my mentor. I have sat in trees, walked amongst trees, and looked for their story. Why is a word that I often ask and try to understand. Growing up in Michigan and as a child visiting the Hartwick Pines I have always understand the extreme longevity of the monarch of the forest. Though I was greatly dissapointed when I visited them last year and almost all are gone. I often found 1st growth timbers in the wilds of my home town forests. though many were providing food for the new neighbors. I spent hours in hollowed out white pine giants that I watched the details of their life, either from a stump that had been felled to a giant that we wraped our arms around to experience the timeless nature of their prescence.