Connecticut’s Largest Tree….

Although the world’s largest living organism is a fungus in Oregon it, sadly for observers, is almost entirely underground. Not so the Pinchot Sycamore on the east bank of the Farmington River in Weataug (Simsbury). Standing tall at nearly 100 feet and with a circumference of over 28 feet this sycamore is the largest tree in Connecticut and the largest sycamore in New England. In the aerial view below the full canopy of the tree can be seen next the open area immediately to the right of the bridge at the road side.

In April 2000 the Hartford Courant described the tree and its surroundings:

Nobody knows exactly how old it is, but it is almost certainly two centuries old, and it may be three centuries old. It is named for Gifford Pinchot, a Simsbury native who became the first head of the U.S. Forest Service, a governor of Pennsylvania and co-founder of what today is the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies…..It is the state’s largest tree of any kind, it is the largest sycamore in New England and, latest information suggests, it may be tied with a tree in Bath, Va., for honors as the largest sycamore in the United States. It appears to be healthy.

More interesting information here.

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