Unseasonably warm yesterday morning and the atmospheric conditions lined up and so … foggy. I’ve been waiting for a day just like this for a while. Just down the creek from my home is a tree called The Angel Oak. A Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) and one of a native species found throughout the Lowcountry of Coastal Carolina but only on the East Coast of the US. Its believed to be the largest east of the Mississippi River. Commonly, reports say that the tree is 1500 years old, but realistically it’s age is estimated to be somewhere between 300 and 400 years. Perhaps a seedling when John Smith came ashore in Jamestown, Virginia in 1620 or an acorn when Caravaggio or Bernini were working in Florence. The 1500 year legend is just a testament to the impressiveness of this truly magnificent tree. Standing 65 ft. tall is sort of normal for large, mature Live Oaks in this area – its their nature … also storms and hurricane sort of keep them pruned a bit, but what is amazing is the tree’s over 25 ft. circumference at the base and particularly it’s shade canopy that covers an enormous 17,000 sq.ft., with limbs over 11 feet in circumference resting on and in some cases, partially buried under the ground with the longest limb extending out a distance of almost 90 ft.
Angel Oak
28 Saturday Jan 2012
Posted Charleston, On the Creek, Photography
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