Delaware's champion tulip tree stands at Winterthur, just outside Wilmington: 50.9 metres tall, with a trunk 620 centimetres round. A second tulip tree, north of the city at First State National Historical Park, reaches 53 metres. Eight trees from the state's big tree register make up this page. Two stand in the city itself, a champion honeylocust in Brandywine Park and a hemlock in Brandywine Cemetery, a short walk apart; the rest grow on parks and museum estates within ten kilometres. None of them has a recorded age, and if you know one, tell us.
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Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) · First State National Historical Park, about 10 km north of downtown Wilmington
This tulip tree is 53 metres tall, and Delaware still ranks it second. The Delaware Forest Service measured it at 174 feet, with a trunk 546 centimetres round and a crown averaging about 37 metres across, and placed it behind the state champion at Winterthur, a few kilometres to the west, which is two metres shorter and noticeably thicker. Big tree registers score the whole tree, trunk and crown as well as height, so the tallest does not automatically win.
For scale: the Davie Poplar in Chapel Hill, the best known tulip tree we publish in the American South, stands 30.5 metres. The tallest European ones on our map, in Geneva and Copenhagen, reach 30 and 26.5. This one clears every one of them by more than twenty metres, which makes it the tallest measured tulip tree on this site.
It grows on the grounds of First State National Historical Park, about ten kilometres north of downtown Wilmington and outside the city itself. Entry is free. The register's ranking dates from November 2024, and a dated observation at the spot within the last four years says it was still standing then.
What the register does not give is an age. Nobody has dated this tree, as far as we can find, and no planting record turns up. If you know its history, or have a tape and an afternoon, tell us.
Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) · Winterthur, about 8 km northwest of downtown Wilmington
Delaware's champion tulip tree is not its tallest, and it does not need to be. The Delaware Forest Service ranks this one first in the state: 50.9 metres high, a crown averaging about 32 metres across, and a trunk 620 centimetres round. Another tulip tree north of Wilmington stands two metres taller, but this trunk is wider by more than 70 centimetres, and on a register that scores the whole tree, girth carries the day.
That trunk is the thing to come for. Of the tulip trees we publish worldwide, only one is thicker, at the Biscainhos garden in Braga, Portugal, at 650 centimetres. The big ones we map in Arnhem and Porto sit around 530. And none of those comes near 50 metres in height; this tree is roughly twenty metres taller than the best measured European examples on our map.
It grows on the Winterthur estate, the museum and garden about eight kilometres northwest of downtown Wilmington, outside the city. Entry is paid. Four hundred metres away on the same grounds stands Delaware's champion dawn redwood, so one ticket covers two state records.
The ranking dates from November 2024, and a dated observation at the spot within the past four years confirms it was alive then. The register carries no age and we have found no planting date. If you know when it went in, or who planted it, tell us.
American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) · Valley Garden Park, about 7 km northwest of downtown Wilmington
This sycamore spreads almost as wide as it stands tall. The Delaware Forest Service measured it at 39.6 metres high with a crown averaging 38.7 metres across, which leaves barely a metre between the two numbers. The trunk is 589 centimetres round.
Those numbers put it ahead of the best known sycamore in the region. The Brandywine Sycamore at Chadds Ford, across the Pennsylvania line to the north, the tree the Battle of Brandywine was fought around in 1777, measures 559 centimetres and 33.8 metres. This one is thicker by 30 centimetres and taller by nearly six metres. Of the American sycamores we publish, it is the tallest; the trunks at Sunderland in Massachusetts and Simsbury in Connecticut are much wider, at 782 and 884, but neither reaches 35 metres.
Even so, the state ranks it only second in Delaware, which says something about how big Delaware's sycamores grow. The ranking dates from November 2024, and a dated observation at the spot within the last four years confirms it was alive then.
It stands in Valley Garden Park, about seven kilometres northwest of downtown Wilmington and outside the city, on free public ground. Unlike its Chadds Ford neighbour, it has no battle attached and no recorded age. If you know how old it is, or what the ground was before it became a park, tell us.
Pin Oak (Quercus palustris) · Bellevue State Park, about 6 km northeast of downtown Wilmington
Most pin oaks people know are street trees, planted in rows and kept slim. This one has a trunk 462 centimetres round. The Delaware Forest Service measured it at 29.3 metres tall with a crown averaging 25 metres across, and ranks it second among the pin oaks of the state.
We publish four other pin oaks, all in Dutch parks, in Apeldoorn, Haarlem, Eindhoven and Sittard, where the species arrived as an ornamental from North America. None of them carries a measurement on our pages. This is the first pin oak on the site with numbers attached, and it is also the first standing in its native range: pin oak is a tree of the eastern United States, at home in low, damp ground.
It grows on the Cauffiel Estate within Bellevue State Park, about six kilometres northeast of downtown Wilmington, outside the city limits. The park is public ground. The register's ranking dates from November 2024, and a dated observation at the spot within the past four years confirms it was alive then.
What nobody has recorded is how old it is. The register gives no age and no planting date, and we have found nothing that says whether it predates the estate or was planted for it. If you know, or if you have measured it yourself, tell us. In late autumn, look at the lower branches: pin oaks often hold their dead brown leaves well into winter.
Honey Locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) · Brandywine Park, under a kilometre from downtown Wilmington
Delaware's champion honeylocust has a trunk less than half as thick as one we map in Florence. That is not a knock on it. The Delaware Forest Service ranks this tree first among the honeylocusts of the state, at 231 centimetres round, 25 metres tall and a crown averaging about 13 metres across. The Florence tree is 525 centimetres round and 21 metres tall.
So the champion makes its case upward rather than outward. It is taller than every honey locust we publish: the Florence giant, the Warsaw one at 18 metres, the Cagliari one at 15. A narrow crown on a tall stem is what you are looking at.
This is also the most central tree in Wilmington on our map. It stands in Brandywine Park, less than a kilometre from downtown, free and open, and the champion eastern hemlock in Brandywine Cemetery is a walk of about 560 metres away. Together they make the short city walk; the bigger trees on this page stand outside the city.
The ranking dates from November 2024, and a dated observation at the spot within the last four years confirms it was alive then. The register has no age for it and no planting date, and we have not found one either. If you know when it went into the park, tell us.
Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) · Brandywine Cemetery, under a kilometre from downtown Wilmington
The second-largest eastern hemlock in Delaware grows in a cemetery a few minutes' walk from downtown Wilmington. The Delaware Forest Service measured it at 25.6 metres tall, with a trunk 259 centimetres round and a crown averaging about 13 metres across, and ranked it second in the state in November 2024.
That trunk is wider than the hemlock we publish in Minneapolis, at the Eloise Butler wildflower garden, which measures 213.
It is also the tree on this page we are least sure about. For the others, a dated observation at the spot within the last four years shows they were standing recently. For this one we found none. That is not evidence it has gone, only that nobody has posted a dated record of it, and it means the newest confirmation we hold is the register's own ranking. If you walk past 701 Delaware Avenue, tell us whether it is still there; a photograph would settle it.
The cemetery is free to enter, and Delaware's champion honeylocust stands in Brandywine Park about 560 metres away, so the two make a short walk together. Nobody has dated this hemlock, and the register gives no age. If you know when it was planted, tell us that too.
Green Ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) · Hagley Museum, about 4 km northwest of downtown Wilmington
The most remarkable thing about Delaware's champion green ash is that it is still standing. The emerald ash borer, a beetle from Asia, has killed most of the ash trees in Delaware since the 2010s, and this one, at Hagley, was still alive when the Delaware Forest Service ranked it first in the state at the end of October 2024.
It is a big tree by any measure: 42.7 metres tall, a crown averaging about 31 metres across, and a trunk 422 centimetres round. The only other green ash we publish with a measured trunk, in Barcelona, is 320 centimetres. For a species most people know as a modest street tree, 42 metres is a lot of ash.
We hold one more sign of life: a dated observation at the spot within the last four years. Beyond that we cannot vouch for it, and with the borer in the state, we would rather say so plainly than imply it is safe. If you visit Hagley, tell us whether the tree is still standing and whether the crown looks healthy. A photograph would help more than anything.
It grows on the grounds of Hagley, the museum estate about four kilometres northwest of downtown Wilmington, outside the city. Entry is paid. The register gives no age and we have found no planting date, so if you know its history, tell us that as well.
Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) · Winterthur, about 8 km northwest of downtown Wilmington
This tree grew a trunk 556 centimetres round in under eighty years. It cannot be older than that: the dawn redwood was known to botanists only as a fossil until the 1940s, when living trees were found in central China, and seed first reached gardens outside China in 1948. Every dawn redwood in America dates from then or later.
The Delaware Forest Service ranks this one first in the state: 33.5 metres tall, a crown averaging about 22 metres across, and that trunk. It holds up against the best we map anywhere. The dawn redwood by the pond in Bad Homburg, Germany, is a little thicker at 580 centimetres but stands 28 metres, so this one is more than five metres taller. Frankfurt's botanical garden tree measures 572 round. The Hoyt Arboretum tree in Portland, Oregon, is 329.
It stands on the Winterthur estate, the museum and garden about eight kilometres northwest of downtown Wilmington, outside the city. Entry is paid. About 400 metres away on the same grounds is Delaware's champion tulip tree, 50.9 metres tall, so one visit takes in two state records.
The register ranked it in November 2024, and a dated observation at the spot within the last four years confirms it was alive then. What we do not know is its planting year. If you know it, tell us. And come in late autumn, when this conifer turns rust and drops every needle.