The Bald Cypress of McGinnis Slough

Two of the three biggest bald cypresses on Cook County's forest preserve land stand about 50 metres apart, in the same slough. This is the stouter of them, and the register ranks it second of its species: a trunk 3.78 metres round on a tree 20 metres tall, 65.6 feet, measured on 24 July 2023. Its neighbour, ranked third, grows the other way, with a trunk about 3.2 metres round and a height of about 25.6. Stand between them and you see one species on one patch of wet ground making two different trees. The numbers have a near twin across the Atlantic. The bald cypress at the Monnikendam in Amersfoort, on our Dutch pages, is 3.81 metres round and 20 metres tall, within three centimetres of this one. Whether these cypresses were planted or came up on their own, the register does not say, and neither do we. What it does record is size, rank and the day of measurement, the same July day the county measured the champion black oak at Willow Springs Woods and the swamp white oak at Spears Woods, both nine to ten kilometres to the north. Come in autumn. Bald cypress is a conifer that drops its needles, and before they fall they turn copper red. The register is the only source and gives no age. Nobody has dated this tree. If you know how old it is, tell us.