'Hooker's Legacy'

One of the largest oaks in the world grew in Bidwell Park in Chico, California. This “Valley oak,” Quercus lobata, was thought to be 1,000 years old, and it rose to 110 feet tall (34m) and was 29 feet in circumference (8.8m) at eight feet above ground. It was estimated that 7,885 people could stand under its canopy, assuming 2' sq. ft. (0.2 m^2) per person and with no social distancing mandated. Old Valley oaks tend to have a broad, somewhat arching canopy, and the Chico giant's largest branch spread from the trunk to its tip at 111 feet long. Sadly the tree fell on May 1, 1977, and it was discovered to actually be two trees of 325 years each which had long ago grown into one.

Joseph D Hooker

Betula ermanii 'Hooker'

Betula ermanii 'Hooker'

...But before, the Chico tree was known as the “Hooker oak” and it was so-named by Annie Bidwell, a socialite and amateur botanist whose husband founded Chico. Ms. Bidwell named the tree in 1887 in honor of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, the Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. J.D. Hooker succeeded his father, William Jackson Hooker at Kew, and prior to that the son had traveled to Antarctica and had botanized in New Zealand, Tasmania, Morocco, India and some then unnamed countries in the Himalaya. The late Peter Gregory led me through Westonbirt Arboretum where he was once director, and he pointed out a venerable Betula ermanii that was supposedly collected by Hooker.

Asa Gray

In June, 1887, at age 60 Hooker accepted an invitation from his friend Asa Gray (1810-1888) to visit the United States. 67-year-old Gray was professor of botany at Harvard University and was considered America's preeminent botanist. They covered many western states on a ten-week, 8,000 mile expedition, and collected about 1,000 plant specimens for Kew. Hooker and Gray then collaborated on a publication on the geographical distribution of plants of the Rocky Mountain region for the US Geological and Geographical Survey in 1881.

John Muir

Hooker and Gray ended up in California where they were joined by John Muir (1838-1914), the wiry little Scotsman who went on to found the Sierra Club. I wish I could have been privy to their evening discussions – how much I might have learned about trees! Muir recalled their trip:

“After supper I build a big fire, and the flowers and the trees, wondrously illumined, seemed to come forward and look on and listen as we talked...of course we talked of trees, argued the various relationship of varying species, etc.; and I remarked that Sir Joseph, who in his long active life had traveled through all the great forests of the world, admitted, in reply to a question of mine, that in grandeur, variety and beauty, no forest on the globe rivaled the great coniferous forests of my much-loved Sierra.”

Annie & John Bidwell

When Hooker eventually encountered the tree that would bear his name, he proclaimed it to be the largest oak in existence...except that other humongous specimens have been located since, especially a 140 foot tree just south of nearby Covelo, California. To preserve the Hooker oak Annie Bidwell*, who had survived her husband John by 18 years, donated over 2000 acres of their oakful domain to the city of Chico, but insisted that the land remain a municipal park forever. The original endowment, and along with more recent acquisitions, makes Bidwell Park one of the 10 largest in America. After the Hooker oak fell in 1977, 36 years later a group of knuckle-head vandals – probably a gathering of drunken Chico State University students – burned the memorial remains of the enshrined stump.

*John Bidwell (1821-1900) was a rancher and politician, a pioneer settler who led the first Wagon train to California in 1841. He was a United States representative, and the 1892 Presidential candidate on the Prohibition Party ticket. Annie Bidwell was his equal, a philanthropist, suffragist and temperance reformer. When husband and wife met John Muir on an 1877 botanical expedition – with Hooker and Gray – to Mt. Shasta and the headwaters of the Sacramento River, Annie continued with a 37-year-long correspondence with Muir.

Before its demise and later defilement, the Hooker oak gained notoriety as a “prop” in a movie classic, the 1938 Adventures of Robin Hood, where Hood's Merry Men traveled from Hollywood to Chico to film the Norman-Saxon historical drama under the oak's arching branches. I don't know how much of the film is true to English history – a history noddingly boring to Americans such as myself – but I watched it twice last week, much to the amusement of my teenage daughters. The oak tree was the real (reel) star, even though a lot of sword clashing and arrow shooting went on beneath it. I thought that Errol Flynn was foppishly portrayed, and in his green tights and gay cap he looked like a frog, and I wasn't at all convinced of his prowess. My wife, Haruko, watched the second viewing, and she found Flynn/Hood to be wondrously dashing. All right – I'll admit: I could not have watched the Adventures twice without the delicious presence of actress Olivia de Havilland as Maid Marion, and I found her to grow more and more beautiful as the film progressed.

Quercus lobata

Quercus lobata

California's Central Valley (in green)

The Valley oak is also known as “roble” due to its resemblance to the Spanish settler's native European white oaks. Q. lobata's native range is in California's “Central Valley,” a long, broad expanse of land that vertically parallels the state itself, from nearly top to bottom. The climate is hellaciously hot in summer but relatively cool in winter, and the oaks will thrive as long as they receive adequate ground water. I have visited this unique area a few times, usually in early spring where my botanical friends and I sought respite from Oregon's lingering winter. Dr. Hale, Reuben Hatch and I once drove to a military base to witness their huge oaks, and at the guard station one had only to declare, “We're here to see the oaks,” and then the soldier quickly allowed us to enter.

Eric Lucas

Buchholz Nursery's office manager, Eric Lucas, showed me a photo of an oak tree from his late Mother's property, and Eric referred to it as a seedling from the “Hooker oak.” Eric lives in what I call the “North Plains, Oregon compound,” located in an area that has housed six generations of this Scottish-American tribe. For these settlers nothing was given free, and to this day they continue to work on, and to improve their homestead.

Grandpa Ira Wilburn Lucas

Vivian and Wilburn Lucas, 1941

Hooker Oak Seedling

The Lucas seedling is now 57 years old, and it originated from acorns gathered by Eric's grandfather who was visiting relatives in Chico in the 1960s. Grandpa Lucas (then about 80 years old) was impressed with the huge Hooker oak and fascinated with its long, narrow 'corns. Eric's mother, Vivian, germinated the seedlings and two were planted near her home. Her husband cut one down for it was planted dangerously close to the house, but the remaining tree was allowed to prosper, and now it is about 40' tall. I love Eric's haunting photo which renders it in its deciduous disposition, taken in the chill of a hoarfrost morning.

Well, I am an old man now, but I feel an urge to return to California at least once again in my life, to stand under the Valley oaks, to pass the wildflowers en route, and to pay my respects to the Bidwell estate and park, and to the charred remains of the Hooker oak.

P.S. Many thanks to Eric Lucas who shared stories of his heritage along with family photos which made this blog possible.

Sequoiadendron giganteum 'John Muir' in Boise, Idaho

Sequoiadendron giganteum 'John Muir'

Sonya Buchholz

Regular Flora Wonder Blog readers might remember that I posted a blog a few years ago about a “Giant Redwood,” a Sequoiadendron giganteum seedling that was gifted to the city forester of Boise, Idaho, over 100 years ago by the remarkable John Muir. The historic tree was to undergo a transplant to a different city property to make way for a hospital expansion. I was 100% opposed to the project, concluding that the hospital could certainly expand elsewhere; and above all: save, protect and cherish the historic tree. Of course no one listened to me and the tree was moved...and thank God it survived the ordeal. My eldest daughter works for the city of Boise in their parks and recreation department. Sonya led me to the giant redwood and when nobody was looking I gathered a few cones and we germinated a number of seedlings...which I have named Sequoiadendron giganteum 'John Muir'. These saplings I will donate to anyone who cares, and I hope that the City of Boise would want to be one recipient. Plant it next to the mother tree with a plaque that tells its story; wouldn't that be wonderful?!

Quercus alba

Quercus alba

Quercus garryana

Quercus garryana

Likewise, I feel a calling, an obligation to propagate from the Lucas's progeny of the “Hooker oak.” What have I ever accomplished that could be considered more important? Since Mother Vivian's seedling has never produced acorns, I will attempt to graft scions onto our “Oregon White oak,” Quercus garryana, and also onto seedlings of Quercus alba, America's “Eastern White oak.” These two understocks were recommended by the noted plant propagator, Brian Humphrey of England. If successful I will name the propagules Quercus lobata 'Hooker's Legacy'.

I wonder if any seedlings from the Hooker oak were planted in the Bidwell Park; if not I will bring them two trees... to plant close together as one. A future Robin Hood can dash anew.