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NY State Champion American Smoketree at DeJoux House?

Still a little investigation to be done but I think the beautiful, fall foliage tree in the front of our house might actually be one of the oldest and biggest of it's kind in New York State.  

Today, I was chatting with our tree guy, Ryan, who was helping clear some brush and trim our massive weeping willow.  He told me we should be very careful of the tree on the south side of the house as it was an American Smoketree, but one of the biggest he had ever seen.   Readers of the blog will have seen some of the amazing fall foliage of this tree in the photo out of the bedroom window the first night we stayed at the house.


In looking back at my photos there are not many photos of this tree.  You can see it here to the right.

Winter 2011
Summer 2010 
Canopy of this tree can be seen to the left of the house
Height of the tree is definitely taller than the house
So, anyway, I didn't think too much of it until I got home and thought I would take a look to see if I could find out more.  Turns out the National Champion Tree of it's kind is only a little bigger than our tree.  Standing about 42ft tall and with a trunk circumference of 102 inches.  (Haven't measured the trunk of ours but if the house is 28ft, it certainly looks like it might be 40ft tall).   So then I thought I would take a look at the New York State Champion Tree list at the Big Tree Register at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

The NY state champion tree listed for Smoketree is : 11 inches trunk circumference (at 4.5ft from ground) and only 20ft tall.   Tiny in comparison to our tree.   I'm sending Daniel out with a measuring stick and a tape measure tomorrow.  We have to know if this truly is a unique and special tree.

You can read more about the American Smoketree in this pdf document or search American Smoketree or scientific name Cotinus Obovatus.


Post Script:

Daniel went out with the tape measure -  the tree is 82 inches in circumference.  Spread is 25 -35 feet and the height seems well over 35 ft (as the house is approximately 28ft).    Here are some more photos:

October color





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