Lou,
What a tree?!?!!!
I intend to get a picture of the mature one growing over at Plano, TX at the Frito Lay corporate headquarters. They will survive here. I planted a very small one (less than 1 meter - 30") two years ago here at Justin, TX. We got down to 4°F December 4, 2005. No problems. I posted a picture of it on the 'Clay Tolerant Conifers' thread. Mine is a weeping variety from San Marcos, TX.
J.D.

RE:I think they will be eventually introduced to USA one day

saw it in a catalog quite a while ago.

The lowest temperature recorded in Las Cruces, NM is -10F (1962). The big three I've seen here is over 100 years......

osprey

Charles,

You are right. More information on this Nanjing Beauty out now than before when I googled it.

For anyone who is interested in Nanjing Beauty hybrid...

Here is a link that might be useful: Nanjing Beauty

Osprey,

I won't have to worry about mine dying out in the most severe winters at all. LOL. The coldest zone they can be planted is 6 and I live in zone 8. For the mexico seed source, they aren't very cold hardy apparently. For this reason, I went for NM ones. There is someone on ebay selling seeds FROM INDIA! I asked someone from there how they got seeds since it is not native to the country and they said they were doing some research on these trees that they brought in from Mexico and I guess they wanted to make money off seeds. LOL.

Hello everyone,
I live in the south of Germany and I have a T. distichum growing very well here. Now having read how much frost some specimens of Taxodium mucronatum have been able to stand in the south of America, I'd also like to try such a fantastic tree here.

Would somebody know of a nursery that sells seeds from really frost hardy trees and would be prepared to send them to Germany?

Best regards :-)
Walter_Ernst

What is your winter like since I'm not all that familiar. The best cold tolerance MC is from New Mexico but I don't know how you can get the seeds from there. It's pretty exclusive. You would have to wait years for mine to mature and produce cones. Mine is from New Mexico. I have some seeds from local montezuma cypress (as pictured above) and it seemed to do great. It's 15 years old tree so it hasn't faced very cold weather since 1989 so I can't tell for sure just how cold tolerant it is.

Great pictures. That link is misguiding in its information though, it places the montezuma cypress as the largest tree in the world by volume when in fact General Sherman's Wellingtonia is the largest by volume. The Montezuma Cypress is the largest girthed tree. Hey Walter, Duchy of Cornwall Nurseries here in the UK sell taxodium mucronatum quite cheaply and mine is doing fine here in probably a zone 7 climate at the top of the Pennines in Northumberland. Here's a link to the relevant page of their website http://www.duchyofcornwallnursery.co.uk/plantshop_list.asp?_page=21&ptid=3&sL=

Raven

How much growth has your Taxodium mucronatum put on this
year? mine has grown 12in this year and is now 6.5ft tall.

My taxodium mucronatum's only put about 6 inches on and it's still only about 2 feet tall

MC can grow as much as 8 feet in one year in good soil with enough rain in long growing season like zone 9/10. Much faster than ordinary bald cypress. It is still reasonably fast grower in Zone 8 although they lose needles for a short time during the winter.

At my college, Stephen F Austin state University located in Nacogdoches, Texas, has some MC growing on the campus and have seen extreme cold weathers in 1980s, experiencing as low as 0*F or close to it. They survived with no major problems. I don't know where they got MC from. MC from New Mexico supposedly can tolerate as cold as zone 6.

lou_midlothian_tx,

I had the great pleasure of seeing those trees at Stephen F Austin State University and they're really nice looking specimens. I also had the great pleasure of talking at length with the professor in charge of the SFA Mast Arboretum and I believe the chair of the horticultural department(don't quote me on that one). He said those MC came from seed collected in Northern Mexico. I forget the exact locale. They have several uncommon Northern Mexico trees growing on campus there from the same collection trips. I'd recommend anyone interested in trees to go visit the SFA Mast Arboretum and the campus to see some neat trees and shrubs. He also showed me their research area where they're doing most of their work on the New Mexico sourced MC, some of the hybrids, and some other sourced MC. It looks like in the future there may be some neat hybrids(besides the already released 'Nanjing Beauty') and possibly cold hardy cultivars of MC coming out of there.

Kman,

SFA already has those new hybrids. I saw little ones over the summer, I think T-27 and T-114 (trying to recall exact number). The professor said he'd give me some when he has some available. I'm going to SFA this saturday to pick up Nanjing Beauty to plant at my "retirement" property which is a long time away but I needed trees there. Long story but he's giving me free trees (about 20) in exchange for evaluation program.

By uncommon Northern mexico trees, I assume you're talking about Q. Polymorphia, Q. Canbyi and Q. something aka Loquat Leaf Oak? I'm hoping to score some Canbyi and Loquat Leaf seedlings or acorns while I'm there. I believe I found a mature Canbyi oak in Marble Falls (Northwest of Austin) but I need to take up close pictures to send to the professor for verification. It had green leaves in late December 2005 when I was there for Christmas holiday.

{{gwi:324600}}

lou_midlothian_tx,

Yes I know they already have them, I saw them also (and I believe you got the numbers correct). But I didn't think they've released any of them to nurseries or the general public, like they have 'Nanjing Beauty'. Yes, some of the Mexican Oaks(they have several smaller young specimens of some species like Q. hypoleucoides, Q. germana, and a large fruited variety of Q. polymorpha and some others) they have there are some of the trees I was thinking about, but I was also thinking of Platanus mexicana (and I believe Platanus rzedowskii), Cercis mexicana, Cornus florida subsp. urbiniana, and Acer skutchii, which might be one of the rarer Maples in all of North America.

lou_midlothian_tx,

I forgot to comment on your photo. It looks like a really nice tree. If the leaves are relatively small and narrow, when compared to say Q. buckleyi, then it's most likely either Q. canbyi or Q. graciliformis. The best and easiest way to tell if it's Q. canbyi is if it produces acorns all in 1 growing season(you might find acorn caps still attached to first year twigs on the tree right now), then it's Q. canbyi, if it takes 2 growing seasons(there will be lots of very small developing acorns on it right now if this is the case) to mature it's acorns like most other members of the Red Oak group, then it's Q. graciliformis. Q. canbyi can also have some acorns which take 2 growing seasons to mature, but not a lot when compared to Q. graciliformis which only has acorns which mature over 2 growing seasons.

It also sounds like you are going to have one nice retirement property with some many neat and rare trees! I look forward to some photos when you are retired! he he

PS. Loquat Oak is Q. rhysophylla.

Kman-

Q. gracilformis doesn't seem to match the description of that tree from what I've read. I don't know if that red oak even have those small leaves like Q. canbyi. When I was walking my dog around my in law parents' neighborhood, it caught my eye so I walked over to that tree and took some acorns but it never struck me that they have small leaves, just that it's still green while all other red oaks have lost leaves or hanging on their dead leaves. Perhaps Q. shumardii x canbyi hybrid with the larger leaves? I'm going back there in a few weeks for Christmas and will take a closer look with more pictures. I'm curious to see how much that Q. polymorphia (in the front to the right) has grown in the past 2 years. Believe it or not, there are a couple of Mexican Blue Oak trees further down the road, Quercus oblongifolia. That darned tree took me a year to figure out which oak species it was. The acorns on them are the smallest I've ever seen, about 1/4-1/3" of an inch.

There are several Q. buckleyi x canbyi hybrids known and I've seen a rather large one in Western Oklahoma which had leaves much more in the range of Q. buckleyi in size. So, you're right it could very well be a hybrid.

Also, the last photo looks like there are developing acorns on 2nd year twigs, which would make it a Red Oak, but it's somewhat possible those are aborted acorns that are still attached. Also, it could be just the photo, but Mexican Blue Oak is usually quite blue or blue-green(much like Lacey Oak) in appearance and the photo doesn't look blue or blue-green to me. Also, the leaves just don't seem oblong enough. The leaves on Mexican Blue Oak are usually in the 1 to 1 1/2 inch range in length, making them smaller than most Oaks.

I'm not trying to throw water on your parade (so to speak), and it could be just that the camera isn't capturing the actual color of the tree accurately and that pair of what appears to be developing acorns are really old aborted ones still attached. Also, what part of Texas are your in-laws located?

Kman-

Maybe your monitor isn't adjusted for color correctly. :)

I've seen a picture of Mexican Blue Oak and they look very similar with small acorns (size of somebody's fingernail) which happens to match what I saw. It says it can grow in alkaline soil. That's where they are growing in right now.

All these trees are located in Marble Falls, about an hour northwest of Austin (Central Texas).

Here is a link that might be useful:

True, that's another possibility!

Mexican Blue Oak can certainly grow well in Marble Falls, TX. It still strikes me as a bit off though. You are correct, Mexican Blue Oak is actually commonly found growing in alkaline soils in the wild.

The bark of Mexican Blue Oak is distinctly checkered when that size, but I can't see the trunk really in your photo. If you recall the bark being checkered, then it's probably Mexican Blue Oak.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:819566}}

The MBO bark looks very interesting. I don't recall seeing them. I'll take pictures of everything when I go there for Christmas. I'll be collecting acorns as well.

By the way, I went to see Dr. Creech at SFA on Saturday and he gave me trees mostly NMMC and Nanjing trees for me to plant at my empty 3 acres land in Corsicana for an evaluation. I'm also going to plant a few in Midlothian. I'm going to see about donating a couple to City of Midlothian to be planted in public view somewhere. I think bald cypress is really a poor choice for alkaline soil here. There are a lot of them being planted but they just don't look like they're thriving. Some were planted directly into caliche soil (there are 4 bald cypress in my subdivision). They didn't seem to have that healthy green color to them, you know? That MC as pictured above looked so much better. I gave 400 seeds from that tree to Dr Creech. I wonder what he'll end up doing with them.

Lou