Sessile oak in the Forêt de Bercé

This page contains specific information about sessile oak (Quercus petraea) '8235', which can be found in the Forêt de Bercé in Jupilles.

This is the tallest Sessile oak I measured in the Forêt de Bercé at 28 and 29 april. It is the tallest lasermeasured oak in Europe till now and together with a beech in the Gründau Forest in Germany, a Plane tree in England and an Ash tree in Germany the only native broadleaf tree lasermeasured in Europe of above 48 m. It was not sure I measured the tallest top.

While this oak stands beside an oak with larger crown and thicker trunk it is easy to overlook it. But after measuring all tops I could hit at with the Nikon Forestry 550 laser, it proved to be even 2.4 m taller than its neighbour!

These were the two tallest oaks I could find in 2 hours of measuring at April 29, 2012 in the valley near Sources de l'Hermitière. Many other oaks I measured were between 40 and 44 m. The beeches in the same valley were most of the time less tall, around 38 to 42 meters. The tallest I measured was 44.6 m.

The forestor of the Forêt de Bercé, Yves Gouchet, in december 2006 measured an oak of 50 m in this valley, that was mentioned as 49.5 m in another source of the Forestry. Very probable he used a Vertex Hypsometer, much used by Forestry professionals, but we think of it as being less reliable compared to laser. See:http://www.nativetreesociety.org/specialreports/bragg/Bragg2007b.pdf .

The girth of the tree is 3.13 m measured at a height of 1.30 m (Apr 29, 2012, Jeroen Philippona). Its height is exactly 48.40 m (Apr 29, 2012, laser with Sine method (e.g. Nikon Forestry 550 laser rangefinder), Jeroen Philippona). This tree was planted around the year 1775 ± 50, which makes it around 238 ± 50 years old (Jeroen Philippona, May 1, 2012).

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Photos

The photos are provided by Jeroen Philippona.