Skip to main content

NY State Champion American Smoketree at DeJoux House?

Still a little investigation to be done but I think the beautiful, fall foliage tree in the front of our house might actually be one of the oldest and biggest of it's kind in New York State.  

Today, I was chatting with our tree guy, Ryan, who was helping clear some brush and trim our massive weeping willow.  He told me we should be very careful of the tree on the south side of the house as it was an American Smoketree, but one of the biggest he had ever seen.   Readers of the blog will have seen some of the amazing fall foliage of this tree in the photo out of the bedroom window the first night we stayed at the house.


In looking back at my photos there are not many photos of this tree.  You can see it here to the right.

Winter 2011
Summer 2010 
Canopy of this tree can be seen to the left of the house
Height of the tree is definitely taller than the house
So, anyway, I didn't think too much of it until I got home and thought I would take a look to see if I could find out more.  Turns out the National Champion Tree of it's kind is only a little bigger than our tree.  Standing about 42ft tall and with a trunk circumference of 102 inches.  (Haven't measured the trunk of ours but if the house is 28ft, it certainly looks like it might be 40ft tall).   So then I thought I would take a look at the New York State Champion Tree list at the Big Tree Register at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

The NY state champion tree listed for Smoketree is : 11 inches trunk circumference (at 4.5ft from ground) and only 20ft tall.   Tiny in comparison to our tree.   I'm sending Daniel out with a measuring stick and a tape measure tomorrow.  We have to know if this truly is a unique and special tree.

You can read more about the American Smoketree in this pdf document or search American Smoketree or scientific name Cotinus Obovatus.


Post Script:

Daniel went out with the tape measure -  the tree is 82 inches in circumference.  Spread is 25 -35 feet and the height seems well over 35 ft (as the house is approximately 28ft).    Here are some more photos:

October color





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Paradox farm

If you wander along Springtown Road, past DeJoux House, you will see our mailbox opposite the front door.  It's not especially distinguishable except it is rather large and sits on an old tree stump.  It's a rusty old thing but it seems to have survived the snow plows and drunk drivers of Springtown Road. It has always bothered me that on the side of the mail box you can see the vague outline of the words "Paradox Farm" which was clearly a name that DeJoux House was more recently referred to.  Occasionally when wondering the fields I would stumble across some incongruity and wonder if that was indeed the "paradox" that the farm was named after. Yesterday morning, for some unknown reason, I decided it was time to resolve the paradox.  I sent a quick email to the previous owner June Finer to see if she knew anything of the Paradox Farm ghost on the side of the mailbox. This was her reply: once upon a time we, (myself and russell gilmore---my ex), met a...
3 comments
Read more

Maria Deyo - a chilling tale

We arrived at the house this weekend to meet with the contractors who had poured concrete in the basement on Friday. When we arrived we found a family standing in front of the house taking pictures. Being the friendly types we are, we went over to chat. They told us they were on a haunted house tour and were looking at the house because their daughter had been talking about the ghost at our house for the last couple of days. She had bought a book called "Spooky Hudson Valley" and in it was the story of Maria Deyo and a tragic tale of a mother killing all three children and then killing herself. The family were wonderful and excited to be shown the house. They showed us the book and at the beginning of the story was a picture of our house. The book went on to say that Maria sent the men to the fields and then she slit her daughter's throat and the throat of her other two children...then killed herself. All this happened on September 13 th 1801. There was...
10 comments
Read more

Inspiration for the future look

Daniel has found some wonderful reference materials for keeping the history and character yet not making it a museum. I love the big kitchen table plan for the kitchen inspired by Lutyens and some "behind the scenes" pictures of victorian kitchens. He also showed me some country houses from Axel Vervoordt that I really love. http://bit.ly/uX1eW Simple, authentic yet modern. We discussed putting a full length plate glass window in the old hay loft window on the end of the house. Wow. I can't wait.
1 comment
Read more