Iowa Big Tree Report: January-June 2024
SUBMITTED BY MARK ROUW, IOWA BIG TREE FIELD REPRESENTATIVE
I had some medical issues during this six months of tree measuring, but despite the setbacks, I was able to make good use of the time I had, and some significant trees were documented.
January 5th
I can’t say the first tree I measured in 2024 was a new find. In fact, I had actually been aware of this tree since it germinated in about 1978. The tree is a persimmon, which I started from seed and planted in the yard where I grew up, near Grandview University in Des Moines. The seed was collected from one of three persimmon trees in Union Park in Des Moines. Interestingly, the tree I planted is now considerably taller than the parent tree! I never imagined I would be measuring a tree I planted for the Iowa Big Tree Register. This persimmon is the 5th largest known in Iowa, and the second tallest!
Circ. 4.92’, height 61.75’, spread 37’, index 128.95, rank # 5
January 6th
Today I went to Thomas Mitchell Park near Mitchellville, to take a look at some shagbark hickories that Jeff Carstens reported.I worked for the Polk County Conservation Board as an Associate Naturalist in my younger days, so I was quite familiar with this County park. It would have been about 47 years ago that I first remembered seeing and measuring the trunk of a shagbark hickory at Thomas Mitchell Park. Over 45 years ago this shagbark stood out as being larger than most. Before revisiting that tree, I first measured one standing close to the north end of the park. I found this shagbark hickory to have the following dimensions:
Circ. 7.625’, height 79.58’, spread 54’, index 182.08, rank # 13
While hiking on one of the trails in Thomas Mitchell Park, I noticed what looked like a sizable bitternut hickory. I don’t see many big bitternut hickories anymore, possibly due to hickory decline, which was first identified about 15 years ago in the upper Midwest. The affected trees have a fungus which causes cankers, and hickory beetles are associated with the diseased trees. After measuring the bitternut, I determined the tree to have these dimensions:
Circ. 7.25’, height 103.17’, spread, spread 51.5’, index 203.045, rank # 6
The next tree I measured at Thomas Mitchell was a red elm. Red elms are another species that are becoming more scarce, especially large specimens. For the most part, red elms fared better than American elms during the earlier waves of Dutch Elm Disease (DED). In recent years, however, I have noticed more red elms are succumbing to DED. Today, I don’t know of a single red elm I would describe as impressively large. A couple of decades ago I probably wouldn’t have bothered measuring a red elm the size of this one, but today it is of interest. In the past, I measured three Iowa red elms with trunks measuring over 16’! Here are the dimensions of the red elm:
Circ. 7.375’, height 81.83’, spread 53.5’, index 183.705, rank # 6
I arrived at Thomas Mitchell fairly late in the day, and before long it was getting too dark to measure trees.