Napoleon’s Bald Cypress
This episode begins with a fallen tree on a riverbank in the Loire in France. However the tree has a back story that leads us to Napoleon Bonaparte and take us to Louisana in the States. But it all starts in the grounds of Chateau des Grotteaux where I am standing before a enormous fallen Bald Cypress, Taxodium distichum, with the owner of the chateau, Gaёl du Halgouёt.
Gaёl du Halgouёt
The Bald Cypress
The tree had fallen very suddenly just 3 weeks before. I think it is fascinating when Gaёl tells me that this tree had always had a special significance for American visitors. The tree had been brought back by Napolean from this last expedition to Louisana in 1802 as gift for the owner of the chateau who was creating a new garden in the style of English parkland and was keen to have new and unusual trees for his park. The owner Charles Joseph Bagieu had the job of feeding Napoleon’s army, and had been loyal to Napoleon throughout so this tree was a gift. One year later Napoleon would sell Louisiana to the Americans in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.
As you will hear in this episode the tree had stood in the grounds of the chateau for over 220 years. Gaёl and his family bought the abandoned chateau in 2014 and embarked upon a huge restoration project and you can read more about the project in this interview.
The State Tree of Louisiana
Over in Louisiana I discovered that someone else was very interested in these trees. Harvey Stern had set up the Louisana Purchase Cypress Legacy project. The aim was to find all the bald cypresses that were around at the time of the Napolean’s sale of Louisiana to the Americans in 1803. As you will hear in the episode these trees have a multitude of uses from house building in New Orleans to boat building. Harvey has found a number of bald cypresses that date back to 1803 and the question was why had they been spared logging?
In conversation Gaёl and Harvey discuss this majestic tree, and we learn where else you find them in the States, how old the oldest are and how they grow in New Orleans where Harvey lives. He also tells us about their significance to the native Americans.
The largest documented bald cypress is: “53-feet in circumference at breast height. To hug that tree, it would take at least nine people.”
Below you can see some photographs of the Bald Cypress at Chateau des Grotteaux, just after it had fallen back in August 2024. Gaёl has recently been clearing it so the view of the Eiffel bridge, designed by Gustav Eiffel is once again visible.
One of the things I find fascinating as I make the podcast is that plant stories can lead you in so many different directions. If hearing this episode you are thinking “I have a plant story that I would like to share” then you can always email me: sally@ourplantstories.com
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