Just last week, we received a White Oak sapling (Quercus alba), propagated from the iconic 565 year-old Salem Oak located on the grounds of Salem Friends’ Meeting in Salem, NJ. It was New Jersey’s champion White Oak until its death on June 6, 2019. Legend has it that it was under the Salem Oak that John Fenwick, an English Quaker, signed a treaty with the Lenni Lenape and soon thereafter built a homestead near the tree. The area around the tree became a Quaker burial ground.
The sapling will be lovingly tended over the next year or two by our horticulturalist, Debbie Lux. She will nurture the tree in a pot until it is large and strong enough to be planted in the ground. It looks small now, but it will be mighty if it follows in the footsteps of its ancestor.
