The Middleton Oak

Until 2012 this oak was described as the largest tree in the eastern United States. It has also been losing large parts of its crown since 2008, which has cut into the volume of wood that made the claim. It is still standing and still alive. The numbers from a 2004 measurement are still the ones people quote: a trunk 10.44 feet across, about ten metres round, a height of 67 feet and some 4,820 cubic feet of wood. It has been called the largest measured southern live oak. The Live Oak Society, whose members are the trees themselves, lists it as its First Vice President. Charleston Magazine puts it at 900 to 1,000 years old. That is a figure repeated from one account to the next rather than measured, and it would make this oak several centuries older than the Angel Oak, so read it as a generous estimate rather than a date. In 1997 a young oak propagated from it was planted just to the north, to help protect the old tree. That offspring is now about 26 feet tall, a reasonable start on the next thousand years. The oak stands in the Sundial Garden at Middleton Place, about half an hour by car from downtown Charleston. Garden entry is paid.