Looking for an excuse to leave on a Florida road trip? Consider one focused on trees.
Florida may be known for its beaches, but in between the sand and surf we're loaded with beautiful trees. In 2013, a USDA Forest Inventory found that forests covered about 50% of the land area of the state and that Florida had a greater variety of tree species than any other state besides Hawaii, many of them only found here. Roughly half of the 650 species native to North America are in Florida somewhere.We're also home to more "champion" trees than any other state.
"Champion trees" are the largest ones of each species in the United States. In 1940, the Champion Tree Program was created by the American Forests organization to track the biggest examples in the country with the National Register of Big Trees. As of 2021, Florida boasted 86 species on the list.
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services keeps its own database of champion trees and contenders where you can try submitting your own.
But a tree doesn't need to be the biggest to be worth visiting.
The Senator tree in Longwood, Florida, once the oldest and biggest cypress tree in the world
In 2011, the Senator in Longwood's Big Tree Park would not only easily top any list of Florida trees, it would have a spot on worldwide lists as well. The Senator was 125 to 127 feet tall, with a trunk diameter of 17.5 feet, and it was estimated to be at least 3,500 years old, the oldest and largest Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) and one of the oldest known trees in the world.
The Senator's 5,100 cubic feet of tree also made it the largest tree of any kind east of the Mississippi. At its height it was 165 feet tall — roughly 14 stories or so — but a hurricane snapped off the top in 1925.
The Senator, named for Florida State Senator Mioses Overstreet, who donated the tree and its surrounding land to Seminole County in 1927, was dedicated in 1929 by President Calvin Coolidge, and visitors have marveled at the sheer size of it for many years.
Then in 2012, a drug user accidentally set fire to the tree and it burnt from the inside out. Firefighters fought the blaze for hours but only about 25 feet of charred trunk remained of the tree, which has been alive since the Bronze Age.
A selected group of artisans were allowed to create artwork from the remains of the Senator. The park was reopened in 2014 with a memorial laquer and displays. A clone named the Phoenix, created from branches of the old tree, was planted in a playground at the front of the park. The park still contains another old cypress 40 feet away from the Senator, the Lady Liberty, which was named the companion tree to the Senator. Lady Liberty is 89 feet high, 10 feet in diameter, and is estimated to be about 2,000 years old.
When and where: Big Tree Park, 761 General Hutchison Parkway, Longwood, Florida. The park is open daily from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Treaty Oak tree in Jacksonville, Florida
Fake news saved the Treaty Oak in Jacksonville.
Previously it was just a magnificent Southern live oak tree (Quercus virginiana) called Giant Oak in the Dixieland amusem*nt complex, which opened in 1907 with a roller coaster, racing ostriches (!) and a dance pavilion. But by the 1930s, developers were eyeing the land.
So Florida Times-Union journalist Pat Moran wrote about how Native Americans and white settlers signed a treaty under the oak, making it a local landmark. Philanthropist Jessie Ball duPont and the Garden Club of Jacksonville helped popularize the story and the magnificent oak was saved. The fact that this never actually happened was besides the point.
Ultimately duPont bought the land to preserve it. Three decades later another Times-Union reporter, Jessie-Lynne Kerr, saved the tree again when she wrote her first story in 1964 about how the tree was entangled with a chain-link fence and a junkyard next door and was dying. That got duPont's notice, and she evicted the junkyard and gave the land to the city as Treaty Oak Park. Jacksonville later acquired more land and renamed it Jessie Ball duPont Park after her death in 1970.
The Treaty Oak is about 70 feet high, 25 feet in circumference, with massive limbs stretching over 145 feet to the ground and back up again. It's estimated to be about 250 years old.
When and where: Jessie Ball duPont Park, 1207 Prudential Drive, Jacksonville, Florida. Park hours are 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., all week.
Fred the Tree in the Florida Keys
Embedded content: https://www.instagram.com/p/C2fGA4Nu935/
Floridians watching the 2024 "Road House" remake with Jake Gyllenhaal recognized a familiar sight and local celebrity. Fred the Tree, a beloved local celebi-tree, sprouts from the Old Seven-Mile Bridge as a happy sight for people on the highway next door.
Fred is an Australian pine tree (Casuarina equisetifolia) apparentlysprouted from the droppings of a passing birdaccording to a 2013 story in "Keys Weekly." And despite the lack of rich soil, Fred has grown tall and proud and survived countless hurricanes amidst the salty spray and crashing waves of the Atlantic Ocean. Locals wave as they go and treat Fred as a symbol of the endurance of the Keys. Every Christmas he gets decorated with lights to delight motorists on the nearby, modern Seven Mile Bridge.
Sadly, you can't get to Fred without a helicopter or a boat as the section of highway it is on has long since broken away from the rest of the old road. But the tree gets decorated for holidays every year and passersby wave when they see it.
Fred also has a social media presence, regularly posting pictures and encouragement for marathons, local environmental causes and graduates.
Where: Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Trail, just north of Little Money Key.
The Lichgate Oak, Tallahassee, Florida
In the 1950s, English Professor Laura Jepsen saw a live oak in a cow pasture so incredible she called it "a tree to inspire poets.”
She bought the land and built a Tudor-style cottage there she called "Lichgate," an ancient symbol for the transition between the graveyard and the churchyard. She kept building, adding gardens and even a labyrinth, and she wrote books about her relationship to Lichgate and the oak. She finally bequeathed it to the Nature Conservancy on her death and gave them $100,000 for its maintenance, but the conservation program planned to keep the money and sell it anyway.
Clifton Lewis, whose family had built Frank Lloyd Wright’s Spring House in Tallahassee, and the other preservationists who had formed the Jepsen Institute, got the money together to buy the whole three acres of property and even managed to reacquire some of the furnishings that had been stolen in a break-in after Jepsen's death.
Lichgate is open to the public. There are educational programs there and it's available for weddings and events or just wandering around to enjoy the magical location.
WHERE: 1401 High Road, Tallahassee, Florida. The property is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week. Cottage tours may be available by appointment.
While you're in Tallahassee, which was named a tree city by the Arbor Day Foundation, you can check out two trees that have technically been to the moon. One is a sycamore in Cascades Park, the other is a loblolly pine behind theFlorida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Servicesbuildings off Capital Circle S.E.
Both of them were grown from seeds taken to the surface of the moon during the 1971 Apollo 12 mission. Other trees grown from that lunar excursion include a loblolly pine outside the White House, a sycamore at Valley Forge, and two more trees taken to Brazil.
Edison & Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers, Florida
If you want to see a bunch of champion trees in one go, you need to where you can see five of them. On the grounds you can see:
- Buddha Coconut tree (Pterygota alata): 85 feet tall, 9.3 foot circumference (actually 8 feet shorter than another one on the grounds, but champion status includes other signifiers)
- King or Alexander palm (Archontophoenix alexandrae): 66 feettall and 40 inchesin circumference
- Blue Mahoe(Talipariti elatum): 59 feettall, and just over 11 feetin circumference
- Indian Coral tree(Erythrina variegata): 35 feettall, 9.5 feet in circumference
- Puerto Rican Hat palm(Sabal causiarum): 45 feettall, 7.4 feetin circumference
But one of the coolest trees at the estates isn't a champion, it comes in second behind another one in Hawaii. But it’s amazing.
In 1925 tire king Henry Firestone gave famed inventor Thomas Alva Edison a little banyan tree, maybe four feet high.A hundred years later, that tree is now a 62-foot behemoth you can walk around and through, stretching 32 feet around, with a statute of Edison in front of it.
When and where: 2350 McGregor Blvd., Fort Myers, Florida. Hours are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every day.
The Council Oak tree in Hollywood, Florida
As you move from casino to casino in Hollywood, you might notice a large and ancient live oak, think "nice tree," and head on to Hard Rock.
But this gnarled, sprawling tree is the Council Oak. Under those branches in 1957, according to the Seminole Tribune, the children of the last generation of Florida Seminole Indians chased into hiding in the 1800s met with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the U.S. Department of the Interior to create a unified Seminole Tribe and receive federal recognition.
"The meetings at the Council Oak paved the way for the success of the Seminole Tribe of Florida," Carrie Dilley of the Seminole Tribune wrote. The first gaming establishment in Indian Country opened in 1979 right behind the Council Oak, and celebrations have been had under the tree, which has become the logo of the tribe. In May 2010, then-Gov. Charlie Crist and other officials met with Seminole Tribe members there to sign the Seminole Gaming Compact.
In 2012, the Council Oak Tree site was awarded a listing in the National Register of Historic Places. "The Council Oak Tree Site reflects the Seminole Tribe of Florida's growth over the years and stands as a symbol of strength and stability," reads a historical marker at the spot.
WHERE: Near 4150 N State Road 7, Hollywood, Florida
Fairchild Oak, Bulow Creek State Parkin Ormond Beach, Florida
One of the main attractions at Bulow Creek State Park in Ormond Beach is the Fairchild Oak, the 78-foot tall live oak that is estimated to be 400 to 600 years old (despite the plaque underneath it claiming 2,000 years).
The tree is a popular selfie location for hikers and other visitors, and it's wreathed in legend. For a long time in the late 1900's it was called the “Haunt Oak” or the “Harwood Oak" after well-known businessman Norman Harwood possibly died by suicide under it.
It's not the tallest live oak in Florida, though. It's not even the tallest live oak in the park. Another was discovered by a hiker in 2021 that stretches 121 feet tall, higher than the current live oak champion known as "Grandpa" in Gainesville which "only" reaches nearly 80 feet high. However, Grandpa's larger circumference of 36.5 feet and crown spread of 180 feet kept it in the lead.
When and where: Bulow Creek State Park, 3351 Old Dixie Highway, Ormond Beach, 8 a.m. to sundown
Kapok tree in Palm Beach, Florida
The single largest tree in Florida, according to the Florida Urban Forestry Council, is a monstrous kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra) at the Royal Poinciana Chapel in Palm Beach. Measuring 74 feet high, the tree's circumference is nearly 75 feet around, with a maximum crown spread of 132 feet.
The kapok is not native to Florida so it can't be a national champion, but it nails the state title.
“We have great admiration and appreciation for and an equal responsibility to steward the Olivia Kiebach Gardens and the Picotte Family Lawn that includes the giant kapok tree,” the chapel's Rev. Dr. Robert S. Norris wrote about the 194-year-old tree. “The chapel board of directors established this most unique outdoor garden setting for worship, personal meditation, chapel programming and celebrations.
“The kapok tree, as both a preserved historic specimen and the keystone of the chapel’s grounds and garden, must be protected from present defacement as it is preserved for future enjoyment.”
Where: 60 Cocoanut Row, Palm Beach, Florida
Anywhere else
This is hardly an exhaustive list. There are beautiful, awe-inspiring trees all over the Sunshine State well worth visiting so as you pack up for your summer road trip, don't forget to look up.
