Tree Ring Analysis

Reconstructing Ozark Chinquapin Old Growth

This figure is based on:
1) generalizations drawn from observations on hundreds of remains of old original Ozark chinquapin blight kill;
2) observations of the crown structure of a few surviving large chinquapin sprout clones; and
3) detailed measurements of the logs of two old chinquapins that I judge to be most representative of what old growth must have been like.

These trees were about 30 and 24 inches in diameter and the logs 46 and 42 feet in length with missing tops. My figure shows diagrams of the two logs as found, superimposed on reconstructions of what the living trees would have been like with their crowns restored. The bear is just for scale. The height scale is given in feet and oaks on the site today are 65-70 feet tall. This figure illustrates that Ozark chinquapin may have been crooked, but usually grew with a single upright stem as a canopy dominant tree on dry upland sites, and almost always had a number of smaller, stunted stems growing from the base of the trunk.