In the Presence of Greatness

I love surprises. So it was a pleasant happenstance when we were hiking near Huntsville, Alabama and stumbled across a State Champion Tupelo Tree.

Now, I'm not making this up. While Tupelo's sound like, and kind of look like, something out of a Seussian world, they actually grow in the Southeastern US and are more commonly referred to as a sourgum tree.

They sit, with their comically wide base in water, thriving in wet soil, swamps and flooded areas. In fact, their genus name, Nyssa means Greek Water Nymph

But not only is this a cool tree species that we'd discovered, but we were also face-to-trunk with a Champion. I didn't even know there was Tree Champions, but boy do I feel honored to have met one.