Obituary for “The Senator”

3500 years before present to January 16^th, 2012

The beloved Pond Cypress (Taxodium ascendens), affectionately nicknamed “the Senator”, was born 3500 years ago in what is present day Longwood, Florida. The 125 foot tall, seventeen and a half foot diameter trunked, deciduous hardwood was considered the 5^th oldest tree in the world, the oldest Pond Cypress in the world and the oldest tree in the eastern United States.

The Senator, like other members of its species was well known for its thin, waxy, needles and a preference for growing in poorly drained natural depressions. Cousin of the Pond Cypress, the Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) is known for waxy, feathery needles and can be found in well nourished floodplains. Both have round cones, buttressed roots, thick, fire resistant bark and supportive “knees”.

The Senator is survived by seven clones that have been transplanted around the state as well as Lady Liberty, the Senator’s 2000 year old companion tree in Big Tree Park.

Photo by Jared Lennon

Breaking News: Death of an Iconic Conifer

Investigators have arrested a woman who admits to lighting a fire that accidentally torched a 3500 year old Pond Cypress in Longwood, FL. Arson was initially ruled out in the death of “the Senator”, due to the intensity of the blaze in the upper portion of the tree, leading investigators to blame a lightning strike for the fire. Despite evidence that a fire might have been set in the base of the hollowed out trunk of the ancient tree, it wasn’t until witnesses came forward with information regarding the crime that the full story unfolded. The woman in question, 24 year old Sara Barnes, admitted to lighting a fire to see the drugs she was about to take. The apparent out-of-control fire blazed up through the nearly hollowed out trunk and into the canopy. The suspect took photos but did not call 911, instead she bragged about it days later. Fire crews had to pull hoses over one mile to reach the Senator by which time it was too late. The massive tree collapsed to the ground.

Opinion

Pond Cypress and Bald Cypress can be found through out the southeastern United States and although much of the old growth has been cut there are still places where centuries old cypress can be found (like the one above, photographed in Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Naples, FL). Still, cypress-filled wetlands are destroyed by the acre each day due to development. We’ll never have another Senator “unless”….

Seasonal Attitude Disorder

“I don’t know how you stand living in Florida. I need the seasons”. This is typical response when people learn that I’m from Florida. Generally what they mean by “seasons” is six to eight months of long cold nights, one month of rainy spring and flooding, two months of grotesquely humid summer days and then eleven magical days where the chlorophyll-pigmented adornments to woody vegetation (leaves on trees), are awash in a wave of spectral undulations that lap at the foliage over and over until it sucks the life from each beautiful leaf and leaves them dead on the forest floor. I get it.   

Having lived in Vermont for 14 years I can understand the visual spectacle that is leaf peeping. I appreciate the stillness and solitude of a billion snowflakes falling all around me in a moonlight hayfield. I love the notion that a 60 degree spring rain is a warm rain and the ephemeral flowers come and go too quickly. And it may be only two or three hot months of summer but after a long cold winter I can deal with 90 days of listening to someone ask me “Is it hot enough for ya?”

I get Florida too. The changes are just as subtle and vary from region to region and coast to coast. In the Everglades we have our seasons. Wet and dry are the most obvious but we have the changing of the leaves as well. For a few short weeks the Red Maples (Acer rubrum) and Willows (Salix sp.) slow their production of chlorophyll, revealing the carotene pigments that display oranges, xanthophyll pigments that show yellows and red producing lycopenes.

The feathery leaves of the deciduous conifer Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) will brown and fall to the ground, explaining the tree’s name. Nighttime temperatures will dip from the 60’s into the 40’s. The swamp will cool for a few months and to us Floridians it’ll get downright chilly. Someone will ask “Cold enough for ya?”

Yep.

But I get it. 

Light it Up

Forget Rockefeller Center. There is no tree more ornate, more spectacular or more literally full of life than what I witnessed a few nights ago. In the middle of the seemingly unending urban sprawl that is the megalopolis of Miami/Fort Lauderdale/West Palm Beach is a little pond rimmed with Bald Cypress that remains as a vestigial wetland behind a massive executive building complex in Oakland Park.

I had stopped just a few hours after sunset in search of a geocache and was wildly distracted by the squawks and croaks that emanated from the darkness. As my eyes adjusted, I fixated on the ever shifting white spots that decorated a Bald Cypress in the middle of the unlit pond. As I continued to listen and watch, a near full moon began to rise directly across the pond, illuminating the Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets and White Ibis that had all taken refuge in this well protected tree.
How fantastic to be in the right place at the right time. Could a scene like this be what inspired the early pagans to decorate trees around the Winter Solstace, a tradition that evolved into today's Christmas trees? Either way - it would inspire my holiday decorations in the days to come.....