City Park, New Orleans Cypress determined to be 170-190 years old

The large City Park cypress behind Grow Dat Youth Farm in City Park New Orleans, adjacent to the Frisbee gulf course (29.995883 N,  90.091117 W-- see map at previous Blog post) has been determined to be nearly two hundred years old—not old enough to qualify as a La Purchase Cypress Legacy tree—but certainly one of the oldest cypress in Orleans Parish. this area of the Park has several older cypress interspersed with large live oaks.

Here are the statistics:

Circumference: 11’11”

1^st boring:  8 inches, approx. 78 rings counted

2^nd boring: 6.2 inches, approx. 57 rings counted

Projected Age: 170-190 years old

This could well be the oldest known cypress in City Park and is currently the oldest known cypress in Orleans Parish with borings to verify estimated age. (The first commemorated La Purchase Cypress Legacy Tree, located in New Orleans at the residence located at Baronne and Robert Street did not have a boring taken)

“Grandma Tree” in Tickfaw Park commemorated with La Bicentennial Cypress Legacy Plaque : “Alive in 1812”

photo by Mike Weeks

This plaque, presented to Tickfaw State Park in 2012 by the LBCL campaign (a 2012 initiative that supplemented  the Louisiana Purchase Cypress Legacy to  recognize  cypress trees alive in 1812, the year of Louisiana’s statehood) , was recently placed at the site of one of the oldest cypress trees in Livingston Parish. (Boring and estimated age forthcoming.) A boardwalk to the tree is located off the main road through the Park, just past the turnoff to the campsites (see map and coordinates below)

Tickfaw State Park contains several examples of large old cypress, some of which are  accessible from the Park's canoe launch, including that shown below.

                                                           courtesy of Amy Warner

  Largest (Oldest?) Cypress in Orleans Parish Discovered in City Park

We have discovered (thanks to a tip from Wesley Martin--thanks Wesley!)     another cypress treasure hiding in plain sight-- this one in City Park in New Orleans, behind the "Grow-Dat" Farm (see map below) . This is an impressive old cypress with thick limbs, a full canopy and a circumference measured at 11 feet 11 inches, the largest known cypress we have found in Orleans parish.  Its impressive girth, along with its location along one of the City Park bayous in a grove of other large old cypress, suggest that it could be "alive in 1803" and eligible for addition to the LPCL registry. We are awaiting permission to take a boring of the tree to determine its age. In the meantime, if you are aware of any similarly/larger sized cypress in Orleans Parish (circumference measured above the buttress where the trunk becomes uniform in size), please let us know!

LPCL Treasure Hunt Parish Registry Update

Click on this link to view a May 2018 update of the "Louisiana Purchase Cypress Legacy Treasure Hunt-- A Registry of the Largest/Oldest known Cypress in each Louisiana Parish". Several new Parish discoveries have been added since the previous version, including centuries old cypress in Ascension, Bossier, Claiborne, Iberville, Lafourche, Livingston, Natchitoches, St. John the Baptist, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Tammany, Terrebonne, Webster, and Winn Parishes.

Parishes still awaiting discovery of a 215 + year old cypress ("Alive in 1803") include Acadia, Allen, Beauregard, Caddo, Calcasieu, Caldwell, Cameron, Claiborne, East Feliciana, Franklin, Grant, Jackson, Jefferson Davis, Lafayette, LaSalle, Lincoln, Madison, Ouachita Parish, Pointe Coupe, Red River, Richland, Sabine, St. Bernard, St. Helena, St. James (Blind River Boring pending), St. Martin, St. Mary, Vermillion, Vernon,  and West Baton Rouge.

And for those Parishes already having registered cypress listed, we are always happy to hear of trees that may be older than those listed.

Saline Bayou, Cloud Creek Crossing, Winn Parish