The Champion Ohio Buckeye of Busse Forest South

Cook County's champion Ohio buckeye is wider than it is tall: a crown about 18 metres across, on a tree of only 13.4. The Forest Preserves of Cook County measured it on 13 August 2024 and ranked it first of its species on their land. The trunk is 3.13 metres round, 123 inches, which on a tree 44 feet tall makes a squat, heavy shape. The crown runs about 18 metres one way and 13 the other. The only other Ohio buckeye on our map, in Salt Lake City's Washington Square, is built the other way: almost six metres taller at 19.2, on a trunk a full metre thinner, 2.13 round. Busse Forest South gives it neighbours. About 800 metres away stands the county's second-ranked sugar maple, 36.6 metres tall, nearly three times this buckeye's height on a thinner trunk. The champion and third-ranked basswoods stand about three kilometres to the north-west, and the champion white pine of Busse Forest North about the same distance north. Between the two preserves that is five ranked trees, a long walk or a short day. The pin is the register's GPS fix at the trunk; we have not found a trail description that leads to it. The register is the only source. It records size, rank and the date, and nothing about age. Nobody has dated this buckeye. If you know how old it is, tell us.