Little something on Kansas City before I post the DCO info ....
Kansas City oak trees
This list of the champion trees of
Greater Kansas City dates back to 1955 when the late Stanley R. McClane, landscaping superintendent for the J.C. Nichols Company made the first survey. The list designated the largest known example of well over 100 species and varieties of trees in Jackson, Clay, Wyandotte and Johnson Counties. Chuck Brasher, arborist for Country Club Tree Service, renewed McClane’s list in 1974 and maintained and enhanced it until his death in 2012.
In 2013
Powell Gardens made the offer to continue the list and make it a resource for the Greater Kansas City community. Area tree professionals provided input in how to make the list more meaningful to citizens and professionals alike. The current list includes the champion tree for each species and variety and runner up trees so that mature examples in various parts of the metro can be easily visited.
White Oak X Chinkapin hybrid oak / not named location: Mt Washington Cemetery
Post Oak X Chinkapin hybrid oak / not named " Swope Park
Sawtooth Oak " 88th & Ward Pkwy
Sawtooth Oak 321 Lindenwood
White Oak X Chestnut Oak Hybrid / Sauls Loose Park
Swamp WO X Overcup Hybrid / Humidicola Linda Hall Library
Bur Oak X Swamp WO Hybrid / Schuette Linda Hall Library
Chestnut Oak Montana / Q. prinus 7318 Conser? St.
Chestnut Oak Montana / Q. prinus Loose Park
Swamp chestnut Oak Q Michauxii Loose Park
Kansas City - In the mid 1960’s Kendall Laughlin, author of
Q. ×discreta (1961), made a detailed inventory of
Swope Park, Kansas City’s largest park, and found a number of hybrid oaks, state champion trees, and even a couple of national champions for the time. Fifty years later, many of these trees have been forgotten or removed, and Alan is on a quest to find as many of these trees as possible.
A grafted tree found at the Linda Hall Library arboretum labeled
Q. ×
stelloides, is likely a graft from this original tree.
We measured new champions of the greater Kansas City area of
Q. shumardii,
Q. coccinea as well as a very nice
Q. alba × muehlenbergii that Alan found this past spring.
The last trip of the day took us to a conservation area in Blue Springs, Mo. Burr Oak Woods conservation area holds a few Q. prinoides (DCOs) and I was hoping to find acorns. No luck on acorns, but we did measure a large specimen that I will be nominating for state champion status.