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Cottonwood facts23dKansas Some saw the buffalo roam Cottonwoods aren't even close to being the longest lived or oldest trees in Kansas. That honor goes to trees in southeast Kansas' Cross Timbers forest, which includes post oaks, blackjacks and eastern redcedars that are relatively short in stature, but more than 400 years old. In fact, the cottonwood, which is the state tree of Kansas, doesn't often live to age 100 in the High Plains, said Charles Barden, forester with Kansas State University Research and Extension. But, a few of today's cottonwoods were already growing in the days when the buffalo roamed. The Kansas Forest Service maintains the state's record of Champion Trees, accepting and vetting nominations for the biggest of each tree species in Kansas. Although size doesn't always indicate which tree is older, the champion Kansas cottonwood now is in Sheridan County. It's 82 feet tall and has a 123-feet crown spread. The circumference of its trunk at 4 feet from the ground is 32.7 feet. "Even for a cottonwood, getting to that size takes time," Barden said. Seeds don't equal trees Good seed crops are the rule for cottonwood trees. But, mama cottonwoods immediately send their offspring out into the world to fend for themselves. Seed production starts when the female trees are 5 to 10 years old. It increases rapidly in amount as the trees mature, said Charles Barden, a Kansas State University Research and Extension forester. "Estimates of annual seed production for a mature, open-grown cottonwood have been as high as 48 million--the great majority of which are viable and ready to germinate," Barden said. The white fluff attached to those seeds gave the tree its name. The fluff turns the seeds into warm-weather snowflakes that can drift in the wind for several hundred feet. In nature, those seeds may fall into water, which can carry them even further from home. They may fall or wash ashore onto damp shoreline silt--their ideal planting bed. If they miss a good landing site, however, they quickly die, Barden said. The few seeds that sprout can soon develop problems, too, until the seedlings get well-established. Rains, lack of light, very hot sunshine and fungi kill many of them...which may be why mature cottonwoods produce so many seeds, in hopes a few will actually survive. No guiding terrain features? Use trees One reason buffalo herds used to roam may be that back then, aiming for any particular point in the High Plains seemed like a fool's errand. Early U.S. explorers soon had Easterners referring to the area in terms of other places that were difficult to navigate, calling it the Great American Desert and Sea of Grass. For those who followed, however, tall trees became the available guideposts. A famous tree for those entering Kansas territory, for example, was a cottonwood in what now is Osage County. That county was where the Leavenworth "by-pass" joined the main Santa Fe Trail. Council Grove, Kan., had three historic trees that still linger in the form of trunk pieces: 1) the Custer Elm, which provided a shady campsite when the 7th Cavalry patrolled the Santa Fe Trail; 2) the Post Office Oak, known for the hole in its base that trail travelers used as a cache and pickup point for mail in the early to mid 1800s; and 3) the Council Oak, which shaded a treaty signing that guaranteed safe passage along the Santa Fe Trail through the Osage tribe's territory--in return for $800. --Source: Kansas State University Research and Extension forestry Date: 8/9/07
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