| National Champion
Green Buttonwood Palm Beach, Florida  |
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crown spread: 68 feet |
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Two national champion trees—a native green buttonwood growing in Palm Beach, and a shaving brush tree from Boynton Beach—have been cloned and will reside in Florida as a first step in preserving and propagating mighty trees around the state.
The cloned trees, each about 18 inches tall, were given earlier this month to Wynne Ballinger, chair of the Horticulture Society of South Florida. The society had endorsed the project and worked to get money and locations to set up "Archival Living Libraries" of cloned trees.
Champion trees, the largest of their kind, are tracked by the non-profit group American Forests in Washington. Florida has more than any other state—a whopping 146—yet these titans are unmarked and unprotected.
David Milarch, a Michigan nurseryman, began an effort last year to clone champions around the country so their strong genes could be carried forward. He launched a Michigan chapter of the Champion Tree Project in 1996, and then headed to Florida to do the same. A New York chapter was incorporated last year as well.
Terry Mock, founder of the Florida Native Plant Society, was among those who joined the effort. Donations were collected to clone the trees—at a cost of $2,000 each.
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At a press conference held recently at Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, state Rep. Mark Flanagan, R-Bradenton, promised to introduce legislation to protect the trees around the state.
In addition, Bill Robinson, who owns the largest tree nursery in Florida, The Tree House, just north of Bradenton, said he would grow 20 champion trees and place them on a golf course he is developing in conjunction with Centrex Homes northwest of Bradenton.
More than half a dozen states are interested in the project, Milarch said. "We have taken the project to a national level," and people from Ireland, England, Australia, New Zealand, and Sweden have contacted his group, he said.
Six national champion trees in Michigan have been cloned and are being grown by a nursery in Oregon, Milarch said. The first five will be available to the public in 1999.
As for the champion buttonwood, a member of the mangrove community, it has a trunk circumference of 174 inches, said the Native Plant Society's Terry Mock. The tree is 51 feet tall and has a crown spread of 68 feet. It was found to have root rot that was thought to be incurable last year, but treatment is producing healthier new growth this year.
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The shavingbrush, a flowering tree from the West Indies and tropical America, produces huge bristly flowers in late winter or early spring while it is without leaves. The Boynton Beach champion has a trunk 109 inches in circumference, is 31 feet tall and has a crown spread of 67.5 feet.
The state champion live oak is being cloned now, along with other species.
"We're shooting for 20 more this year, and looking to produce 5,000 to 10,000 clones of each," said Milarch.
on the Florida Champion Tree Project contact Terry Mock |
| see also:
Living Library for Florida Champions, March 1998 Cloning Florida Champions, April 1998 |
