What is the oldest tree in Fort Worth?
The oldest tree in Fort Worth is the Turner Oak, a Texas Live Oak of roughly 235 years standing just inside Greenwood Memorial Park, where pioneer Charles Turner buried his gold during the Civil War. The figure comes from a 2009 record of about 220 years plus the years since, and nobody holds a planting date. Two other trees come close on the city's own register, which puts the Traders Oak at well over 200 years and the Hollow Pecan in the Botanic Garden at over 200, neither with an upper figure. The biggest trunk in the city is a different tree, the Texas Red Oak on Ward Parkway, 622 centimetres round.
Most of Fort Worth's remarkable trees are recorded for their history or their size rather than their age. The Texas Big Tree Registry measures girth and height and carries no planting dates. The city's heritage register tells stories instead, and only now and then gives an age. The Turner Oak's figure rests on a 2009 listing of about 220 years, which fits the Daughters of the American Revolution plaque at its base calling it a Bicentennial Tree. The register gives the Traders Oak well over 200 years, the Hollow Pecan over 200 and the Quanah Parker Park pecan 150 or more, and the Forest Park bur oak was already a survey witness tree in 1845. It calls the Timberline post oak likely one of the oldest in the city, with no figure. The Pioneers Rest ash carries a looser estimate of 75 to 150 years, and the rest have no age at all, which is where readers come in. Fifteen of the eighteen stand on free public ground, two are inside the paid Botanic Garden, and the champion chittamwood sits at the garden's edge, on a side the register does not name.
One of Fort Worth's trees also appears in The Tallest Trees We Have Measured.