Tree Photo Identification Project.

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Tree Photo Identification Project.

Postby RRD2 on Tue Oct 18, 2005 11:28 pm

These are by far the best images of the mystery trees that I have ever seen. Will you attempt to identify them based upon your own research, or will you solicit the advice of a dendrologist / botanist for an opinion or confirmation?

I believe that many of us have looked at scores of images of trees in an effort to get close to an identification. The image that you posted of a similar tree is very close in structure.

Do you know what that tree is?

It is possible that Mr. Wiedenhoeft the botanist will render an opinion based on the original 1931 photo on Jo's O.I. homepage, though probably not conclusive. If one of the samples proves to be exclusively a maritime species, then we will have another possible confirmation. Other that these avenues, how can we help with your project?

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Postby badinfluence63 on Wed Oct 19, 2005 4:30 am

N,

Your contributions/research on the oak trees is over whelming.

I contend these trees to be sterile hybrids, otherwise there should be other trees of this type in various stages of development


Per our conversations at EOID '05, is it absolute that hybrids don't produce acorns?

Sincerely,

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Last edited by badinfluence63 on Wed Oct 19, 2005 6:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Bonnie on Wed Oct 19, 2005 5:10 am

n4, thank you for sharing the old photos of the rare oaks.

i posted this under another thread. should go here:

here is a collection of pictures i have found that , to me, look even remotely close to the photos of the old rare oaks.

there are a couple of photos of trees from st. davids woods in south wales.

i still think the act of union trees match the best. look and compare there base too.

here is a link to the photos i stored of trees for your review:

http://groups.msn.com/photosforyoutoday/shoebox.msnw


here are some recent photos of the act of union trees to compare. berwick, scotland. click on each photo of the trees and it will give you a very large view.

http://www.pbase.com/millerlau/image/37734720



(The Basque country of Northern Spain is wonderful for its landscapes of mainly beech and oak pollards)

ancient tree forum:
http://www.woodland-trust.org.uk/ancien ... s/news.htm



thanks again, the best collection ever! :)

b
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Postby RRD2 on Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:41 pm

In your view then, Bonnie, are these Northern Red Oaks (Quercus rubra L.), or possibly something else completely?

They appear to be similar in structure to the the Berwick trees, but perhaps not exactly the same. If they are sterile hybrids as explains, then they would not be expected to have propagated on the island. If this is the case, then they would have to have been planted there in substantial numbers. Is this possible?

What is your opinion?


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Postby Bonnie on Thu Oct 20, 2005 4:56 am

good evening rrd2,

the only problem is i am not a tree expert. But from all these years of thinking about those trees and trying find out what they are I have come to some opinions:

1. they do not look like an oak tree to me. although, if you look in the picture album link i provided you see a 1,000 year old oak. and it looks diferent from a regular old oak tree as well. So the trees of oak island were very old and therefore they can look diferent from what we would tend to think the species would appear. only an analysis of an actual piece of the tree could tell at this point.

2. to me they look like the beech trees of berwick scotland. limbed up.
or maybe pollards. maybe. the beech trees were planted as an act of union.

3. the beech trees of st. davids woods, wales. These welsh beech trees have a real similar appearance to the trees of oak island and berwick , scotland. to me they do look similar.

My feelings about the trees. after inspecting every single photo here and thinking about it. I am under a good feeling that somewhere in spain these type of fagus (oak/beech) mixture are all over Northern Spain.
which is the pyrenees area.


An expert can tell us what they are. oak,beech or both! in the photos they look so tall! like a calling card. over here. hey you guys! look this way!
I dont think pirates would have done that. They must be very old trees.

It seems like sacred sites in europe have ancient trees or forests. makes one wonder.

nite, b
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Old tree

Postby Tank04 on Thu Oct 20, 2005 5:41 pm

Glad you posted this, I was just back in my truck when I caught the tail end of this story on CBC radio this morning. That tree is very, very special as spruce trees normally do not have a long life span, and they said it still produces cones!

Staying on the subject of trees, and more specifically, Oak Island original Oaks, a thought occurred to me. The "Oaks" in the old photographs are not that big in diameter, indicating they are not especially old. If they are sterile hybrids, as you suggest, it makes one wonder how they could be from the time of the original diggers if we put the critical timing at the 16th century mark. I wonder if they were planted later, or, are they really that old. Any other ideas?

It remains a mystery. A fly by of Oak Island today will plainly reveal, there are no trees that resemble the ones in the old photographs. There are some very old Oak trees on Oak Island. I have photographs of some that were probably witness to McInnis, Smith and Vaughan and the beginnings of this mystery according to a rudimentary count of their growth rings.
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A superior thread.

Postby Crusoe on Fri Oct 21, 2005 1:51 pm

Tank, BI 63, Bonnie, RRD2 (did I leave out anyone ?),

This is truly a superior discussion of the trees of Oak Island, not that earlier discussions have not been worthwhile.

From memory, and without trying to ransack the Forum for earlier contributions, I've learned that the spindly shape of the Oak Island trees can be attributed to growing conditions, so that trees of different species sown and grown under similar conditions can look similar.

My Long Island friend who is expert on trees also mentioned "pioneer trees." I'm not certain what the phrase denotes, but apparently they tend to grow up to look like the trees we are discussing. Tall and spindly, and yes, you can't tell their age by their trunk diameters. You need to count the rings.

The trees which look most like the Oak Island 'oaks' are the 'beeches' of North Berwick, Scotland, but in all probability, they are different species.

THe official web-site for the historic trees of Scotland showed several famous old oaks. They were all substantial in trunk and bough, as I recall. The Act of Union trees of North Berwick, also in an occasionally windswept seaside environment, resembled the Oak Island oaks exactly, as has been observed.

Although we've had no firm evidence, I think we're all interested in the posibility that the oaks were intentionally sown on the island. The idea of the earliest mariners with an interest in the island intentionally 'marking' it with distinctive oaks has a great deal of romantic appeal, and may be quite true. Maybe we will know for sure one day. Another possibility is that imported mast in the form of acorns were transported to the island to feed the domestic animals pastured there. Less romantic, but maybe more likely.

Meantime, the excellent photos which has already provided may be of interest to my tree expert friend in New York, as well as to the expert on the historic trees of Scotland site who responded graciously to my earlier inquiry. I'll see what I can do.

---Crusoe

********************************

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Just in case, anyone is interested:

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**************************
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trees

Postby Vincent on Tue Dec 20, 2005 11:35 am

i have yet to read all of this thread so i wont ask any silly questions but the first thing that struck me was how much those trees look like the island in the map you posted a few weeks back.
very interesting and very well spotted. :shock:
Quick pass me a spade! I`ve had another idea.
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Postby Bonnie on Wed Dec 28, 2005 6:55 am

congratulations n4! too be inspecting with your friend and to actually find a living rare oak tree is the best gift yet! thanks sharing photographs of it.

I cant wait find out what type of tree they really were and are!

1 stands.

amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Tree

Postby Tank04 on Wed Dec 28, 2005 12:27 pm

Posters,

Last night,was over to my house for a talk about his discovery shortly after his visit with Dan and exploration of the island. He plunked down a large piece of bark/tree on my kitchen counter and told me the news.

In the Spring of 2004, I was probably no more than fifty feet away from that tree during an exploration of Isaac's Point (Mrs. Tank and I) where to my glee I discovered a Rabbit's foot, the remnants of an encounter between an unfortunate Rabbit and perhaps a Fox. Had I walked over a few metres, I may have found that tree too. It is part of the famous twin Oak seen in the photographs previously posted by .

Congratulations to for his dogged perseverance and a well deserved pat on the back for not keeping this discovery to himself.
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