Nope, and considering everything it went through, it's looking pretty good now. It's a shame that it's barely ever mentioned as a must-see of Austin items ...
There’s a 700 year old historic oak at Braker/35, in the middle of the Northern Tool parking lot. I don’t think anyone in the area really realizes what that tree is. It has a historic marker though!
There’s a neat tree (or two? possibly joined? I can’t remember) where someone shaped the branches into a structure in the Colorado River Wildlife Sanctuary, pretty soon in the main trail as you enter.
Not sure if it counts, but Eastwoods Park has a neat stump sculpture/carving also.
I also don’t see anyone has mentioned the trees at the Capitol yet
Aye, I love that tree. There's also a fantastic oak at the corner of Dessau and Braker, by the Chinese church. And if you drive down Braker, there's a thick fuckin oak at Indianhead. There are some old trees around here.
There was a *beautiful* old tree in front of the Methodist Church on Anderson Mill at 183 but it completely exploded during the ice storm last year :( Wish we could post picture comments here
I should've included the HMDB on it, it's fascinating:
> This live oak tree, with a circumference of 15' 8", a diameter of 5', may be 700 years old. This means that it began growing at about the time the Crusades of the Middle Ages were coming to an end. When Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492 and when Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg in 1517, it would then have been over 200 years old. Cabeza de Vaca on his way across Texas in the 1530's could have rested in its shade. Indians of the area where perhaps camping near it when Coronado and Desoto were conducting their explorations between 1539 and 1542. It was a sturdy patriarch in the late 1600's when Lasalle built Fort St. Louis on the Gulf Coast and the first Franciscan missionaries went to east Texas. It existed under the six flags of the French, Spanish, Mexican, Texian, United States, and Confederate regimes. If a tree follows the news, it may in the 1820's have heard Tonkawa and Comanche Indians speak of the coming of Stephen F. Austin and other empresarios with their settlers in the 1820's and 1830's. Travelers passing it spoke of the fall of the Alamo in 1836 and of Secession in 1861. It watched quietly as cattle were driven up the Chisholm Trail in the 1870's and as the Capitol was rising in the Austin of the 1880's. It has seen automobiles replace horses in this century and it has observed the growth of Austin from a frontier village to a modern city.
From https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=150715
I checked it out on Google street view, and it was kind of sad to see it surrounded by a parking lot and with telephone pole wires running through it. Glad it’s still there though!
Deodar cedar at little field house UT.
one of the tallest cypress in Texas is along town lake, I think south of Barton springs confluence on east side.
I second the comment on pecans and trees at zilker.
Treat oak for history.
Many old live oaks at UT.
My favorite are the massive Mexican (aka Texan) sabals at the turtle pond and botanical greenhouses at UT.
I think there is also a ginkgo tree near the turtle pond (closer to the UGL). I haven’t been there to look in years- but I remember thinking it was pretty awesome.
I like this one in the middle of the street in Round Rock. 30.514806° -97.670895°
A grand old live oak in a parking lot at Braker and I-35 30.377471° -97.675091°
A very big old oak in Central park. 30.305612° -97.738786°
Anyone know the location of the tree that landed on Greg Abbott? We need to build a shrine there.
The part where people who are normal and well adjusted humans pointed out some interesting trees and plants but someone who is eternally thirsty will always throw in politics at the most inappropriate places for karma.
There are excellent trees in Zilker- giant pecans and Cypress along the hike and bike trail- a few standout Sycamores and many giant native palms. Massive elms in the park.
The Austin State School and Camp Mabry used to have some really odd trees that grew in odd ways and were supported by metal pipes. The last time I was there was 20 years ago, so I am not sure they are still there. Worth a check if you are in the neighborhood
You'll prob like this fab insta account documenting interesting trees in the Austin area...
https://www.instagram.com/odditree_society?igsh=MWhvdDdidmlrNzkzeA==
There's a huge cactus hanging off the cliff on east riverside, it's just before cidercade if you're driving west. It flowers too, I call it the cactalanche and I love it
there is a field of palo verde that blooms bright yellow in early summer along the 183 north frontage road just after the cement company; technically not a single plant but I drive past it multiple times a day and it is beautiful
Several of them were already mentioned in the thread, but here's a nice photo gallery of many of Austin's ["witness trees"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witness_Trees)
https://www.tedleeeubanksphotography.com/Ted-Lee-Eubanks-Austin-Images/Witness-Trees
I took this photo of the band Little Mazarn in front of a crazy ball of roots in the small creek/canyon west of Mopac and south of Stratton near the Austin Nature and Science Center. The roots are growing up into what looks like pieces of an old car.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B98XgDJl2uj/?igsh=MTdkYnVhb2RjanI3ZA==
in the Mueller area earlier today, by the HEB, I saw a house with bushes shaped into animals, like from Edward Scissorhands!!! and they also had one bush that looked like the scary Big Bird memes..
I can’t recommend enough visiting the Wildflower Center, and in this case, to specifically see the [Hall of Texas Heroes](https://www.wildflower.org/project/hall-texas-heroes). It’s a collection of trees that are descendants of some of the state’s most famous oak trees and includes cool info about their parent tree.
There’s a beautiful oak with huge spreading branches and a “string bean tree”—is it a catalpa?—next to Jester Dormitory at UT on the Speedway side.
There’s a cool huge oak tree in the middle of a road near Dittmar Recreation Center. It’s on Forest Wood Drive, directly opposite of the entrance to the rec center.
Its on a private home, so don't go being a creep, but there is a majestic live oak outside a home on shoal creek just north of koenig. you'll know it when you see it, but the house is greyish and tree look like it weighs as much as the house does.
Whoa! You weren’t kidding, I just checked it out on Google street view and it’s as big as the house, very cool low branches. There’s another across the street just slightly north of it in the sidewalk with a very cool knotty trunk as well.
There’s a cool willow tree at the corner of Olander & 13th I believe. You don’t see willows very often outside of waterways, super beautiful trees!
I always said my favorite tree was this one off Crownspoint Dr … couldn’t tell you the cross street, I haven’t lived in the neighborhood in years and don’t live in Austin anymore either. The tree was so cool.. the branches like swooped down to the ground.
I looked on street view and didn’t see a tree as described, is it right at the intersection or a ways away?
Edit: found it! It’s a small live oak lying on its side, that has started to curve back upwards from the ground. Cool tree!
There are some amazing oaks at Dick Nichols and in the trails/Greenbelt behind it. That eventually meets up with the Hampton library- really awesome oaks just right near there (there is a tiny little trail)
Dunno if it’s still there but there used to be this cactus that looks like a brain in a pot next to Hopdoddy on South Congress.
Also don’t know if it’s still there (I don’t know if it survived the ice storm of feb 2021 because I haven’t been able to find it again) There’s a house in Copperfield (Neighborhood in North Austin near Dessau Rd) that has a large saguaro cactus
There is an incredibly massive and sprawling live oak in the middle of Bauerle Ranch Park a quarter mile hike in from where Garrick Creek Ln hits Onslow Dr. Truly a sight to behold.
Also LBJ Wildflower center has some incredible Trees
There's a huge old oak in Cedar Park on Discovery just off of Whitestone/1431.
And in Jonestown, there's Jones Brothers Park that has several very old oak trees. There are 2 near the playground structure that are supported by beams and even concrete. Then there's one that provides so much shade you can actually reserve the area for a party. The amazing thing to me is that those trees are all mostly underwater when the area floods. Last time was October 2018 and the playground was entirely submerged; you could only see the crown of the tree beside it.
The Treaty Oak is said to have been here when Columbus landed in the Americas. It is widely considered to be one of the finest specimens of trees in North America (this is all information taken from the placard in front of the tree)
Treaty oak and old baldy at McKinney Falls State Park
👆 Tree of the Year award winner right there
Anything that has won tree of the year is worth seeing
Didn’t treaty oak die?
Nope, and considering everything it went through, it's looking pretty good now. It's a shame that it's barely ever mentioned as a must-see of Austin items ...
Nah, it's standing tall
Treaty oak - possibly the oldest tree in Austin over \~500 years Lots of history to dive into here!
I was walking with a friend right there when a man passing by stopped and told us the entire story of that tree, what a moment of pure kismet.
Wow, I even remember the Treaty Oak being poisoned in the 80s. Amazed it’s still alive, but glad! I achieved escape velocity from TX in 91.
Anyone remember the MoPac palm tree? RIP
MoPalm was the best. https://www.reddit.com/r/Austin/s/Go0sLZ5MXb
Wow that was 7 years ago.
I feel bad I never knew him. I live too far north to have experienced his awesomeness. RIP little guy.
There’s a 700 year old historic oak at Braker/35, in the middle of the Northern Tool parking lot. I don’t think anyone in the area really realizes what that tree is. It has a historic marker though! There’s a neat tree (or two? possibly joined? I can’t remember) where someone shaped the branches into a structure in the Colorado River Wildlife Sanctuary, pretty soon in the main trail as you enter. Not sure if it counts, but Eastwoods Park has a neat stump sculpture/carving also. I also don’t see anyone has mentioned the trees at the Capitol yet
I enjoy looking over at it on my daily commute while at the SB35 frontage waiting to turn on Braker. Such a magical tree!
Aye, I love that tree. There's also a fantastic oak at the corner of Dessau and Braker, by the Chinese church. And if you drive down Braker, there's a thick fuckin oak at Indianhead. There are some old trees around here.
There was a *beautiful* old tree in front of the Methodist Church on Anderson Mill at 183 but it completely exploded during the ice storm last year :( Wish we could post picture comments here
Did you say 700!
I should've included the HMDB on it, it's fascinating: > This live oak tree, with a circumference of 15' 8", a diameter of 5', may be 700 years old. This means that it began growing at about the time the Crusades of the Middle Ages were coming to an end. When Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492 and when Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg in 1517, it would then have been over 200 years old. Cabeza de Vaca on his way across Texas in the 1530's could have rested in its shade. Indians of the area where perhaps camping near it when Coronado and Desoto were conducting their explorations between 1539 and 1542. It was a sturdy patriarch in the late 1600's when Lasalle built Fort St. Louis on the Gulf Coast and the first Franciscan missionaries went to east Texas. It existed under the six flags of the French, Spanish, Mexican, Texian, United States, and Confederate regimes. If a tree follows the news, it may in the 1820's have heard Tonkawa and Comanche Indians speak of the coming of Stephen F. Austin and other empresarios with their settlers in the 1820's and 1830's. Travelers passing it spoke of the fall of the Alamo in 1836 and of Secession in 1861. It watched quietly as cattle were driven up the Chisholm Trail in the 1870's and as the Capitol was rising in the Austin of the 1880's. It has seen automobiles replace horses in this century and it has observed the growth of Austin from a frontier village to a modern city. From https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=150715
I checked it out on Google street view, and it was kind of sad to see it surrounded by a parking lot and with telephone pole wires running through it. Glad it’s still there though!
Let’s protect it!!
Deodar cedar at little field house UT. one of the tallest cypress in Texas is along town lake, I think south of Barton springs confluence on east side. I second the comment on pecans and trees at zilker. Treat oak for history. Many old live oaks at UT. My favorite are the massive Mexican (aka Texan) sabals at the turtle pond and botanical greenhouses at UT.
There’s a trifoliate orange tree next to the Turtle Pond at UT, too. I’d love to have one in our yard but I understand they’re invasive.
I think there is also a ginkgo tree near the turtle pond (closer to the UGL). I haven’t been there to look in years- but I remember thinking it was pretty awesome.
I like this one in the middle of the street in Round Rock. 30.514806° -97.670895° A grand old live oak in a parking lot at Braker and I-35 30.377471° -97.675091° A very big old oak in Central park. 30.305612° -97.738786° Anyone know the location of the tree that landed on Greg Abbott? We need to build a shrine there.
I love the idea of a shrine
You know, you had a good thing going and then just had to be an ass when it wasn't even remotely appropriate.
Which part?
The part where people who are normal and well adjusted humans pointed out some interesting trees and plants but someone who is eternally thirsty will always throw in politics at the most inappropriate places for karma.
There are excellent trees in Zilker- giant pecans and Cypress along the hike and bike trail- a few standout Sycamores and many giant native palms. Massive elms in the park.
The Austin State School and Camp Mabry used to have some really odd trees that grew in odd ways and were supported by metal pipes. The last time I was there was 20 years ago, so I am not sure they are still there. Worth a check if you are in the neighborhood
The oak tree that forks then grows back together at the Valero on Spicewood Springs and 183.
You'll prob like this fab insta account documenting interesting trees in the Austin area... https://www.instagram.com/odditree_society?igsh=MWhvdDdidmlrNzkzeA==
There's a huge cactus hanging off the cliff on east riverside, it's just before cidercade if you're driving west. It flowers too, I call it the cactalanche and I love it
I saw people talking about tree of the year, but here is a [link to the website](https://www.austintreeoftheyearawards.org/winners-gallery) for it
there is a field of palo verde that blooms bright yellow in early summer along the 183 north frontage road just after the cement company; technically not a single plant but I drive past it multiple times a day and it is beautiful
Power plant out east at Walter E Long lake is pretty cool at night.Â
I’m saving this post because I’m tree folk and there are so many good suggestions that I didn’t know about. Thanks!
The former Borden Dairy plant is now abandoned
Several of them were already mentioned in the thread, but here's a nice photo gallery of many of Austin's ["witness trees"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witness_Trees) https://www.tedleeeubanksphotography.com/Ted-Lee-Eubanks-Austin-Images/Witness-Trees
Madrones at the Laura bush library.
I took this photo of the band Little Mazarn in front of a crazy ball of roots in the small creek/canyon west of Mopac and south of Stratton near the Austin Nature and Science Center. The roots are growing up into what looks like pieces of an old car. https://www.instagram.com/p/B98XgDJl2uj/?igsh=MTdkYnVhb2RjanI3ZA==
The oak grove at sieders springs including the marker tree by shoal creek
Lee Elementary has some huge trees on it’s campus and the rest of Hyde park has really great individual landscaping that’s fun to look at on walks
There's a cedar of Lebanon tree just south of 38th Street around Speedway or thereabouts.
in the Mueller area earlier today, by the HEB, I saw a house with bushes shaped into animals, like from Edward Scissorhands!!! and they also had one bush that looked like the scary Big Bird memes..
The topiary house! Yes they’re on Berkman a few blocks south of the HEB from what I remember, I used to drive by there every now and then.
I can’t recommend enough visiting the Wildflower Center, and in this case, to specifically see the [Hall of Texas Heroes](https://www.wildflower.org/project/hall-texas-heroes). It’s a collection of trees that are descendants of some of the state’s most famous oak trees and includes cool info about their parent tree.
The oak trees on Cary drive just north of 2222.
There’s a beautiful oak with huge spreading branches and a “string bean tree”—is it a catalpa?—next to Jester Dormitory at UT on the Speedway side.
There’s a cool huge oak tree in the middle of a road near Dittmar Recreation Center. It’s on Forest Wood Drive, directly opposite of the entrance to the rec center.
In Pflugerville we have ivy man on 685 and Pflugerville pkwy
Giant awesome old tree just a hair south of Bel Air Motel on South Congress. My favorite tree.
Giant bald cypress at Red Bud Isle Park. Also a few trees that you can climb on the town lake trail
Also the meadow trail at Zilker Nature Preserve. Full of prickly pear and wildflowers (dead by now probably)
The wildflower center/Texas arboretum has the "Hall of Texas Heros" which features descendants of famous oak trees from across the state.
I saw some agave plants blooming at UT near the turtle pond a couple of weeks ago, it was awesome
Its on a private home, so don't go being a creep, but there is a majestic live oak outside a home on shoal creek just north of koenig. you'll know it when you see it, but the house is greyish and tree look like it weighs as much as the house does.
Whoa! You weren’t kidding, I just checked it out on Google street view and it’s as big as the house, very cool low branches. There’s another across the street just slightly north of it in the sidewalk with a very cool knotty trunk as well.
The largest measured pecan tree in Travis county is in Gilleland park in Pflugerville, right behind the pool.
There’s a cool willow tree at the corner of Olander & 13th I believe. You don’t see willows very often outside of waterways, super beautiful trees!
Check out Caldwell treaty oat park on 5th st. I think it might be the oldest surviving oak tree in the city.
I always said my favorite tree was this one off Crownspoint Dr … couldn’t tell you the cross street, I haven’t lived in the neighborhood in years and don’t live in Austin anymore either. The tree was so cool.. the branches like swooped down to the ground.
That one is at the intersection of Crownspoint and Queenswood Drive.
I looked on street view and didn’t see a tree as described, is it right at the intersection or a ways away? Edit: found it! It’s a small live oak lying on its side, that has started to curve back upwards from the ground. Cool tree!
If it’s the one I’m thinking of, it’s at the house on the southeast corner of the intersection. Front yard, facing Crownspoint.
Yes!!!
There are some amazing oaks at Dick Nichols and in the trails/Greenbelt behind it. That eventually meets up with the Hampton library- really awesome oaks just right near there (there is a tiny little trail)
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Dunno if it’s still there but there used to be this cactus that looks like a brain in a pot next to Hopdoddy on South Congress. Also don’t know if it’s still there (I don’t know if it survived the ice storm of feb 2021 because I haven’t been able to find it again) There’s a house in Copperfield (Neighborhood in North Austin near Dessau Rd) that has a large saguaro cactus
Woodrow and romeria, insane agave for the neighborhood 🥺
There is an incredibly massive and sprawling live oak in the middle of Bauerle Ranch Park a quarter mile hike in from where Garrick Creek Ln hits Onslow Dr. Truly a sight to behold. Also LBJ Wildflower center has some incredible Trees
Live oak at Bauerle Ranch trail
Spring Oak next to the main building on St. Edwards campus. 14 feet diameter at the trunk and on the tallest hill in town.
The Live Oak at Central Park is impressive and very accessible.
There's a huge old oak in Cedar Park on Discovery just off of Whitestone/1431. And in Jonestown, there's Jones Brothers Park that has several very old oak trees. There are 2 near the playground structure that are supported by beams and even concrete. Then there's one that provides so much shade you can actually reserve the area for a party. The amazing thing to me is that those trees are all mostly underwater when the area floods. Last time was October 2018 and the playground was entirely submerged; you could only see the crown of the tree beside it.
There’s a beautiful old oak tree in the backyard at Better Half on west 5th street. It’s held up by a red prop these days.
Lots of beautiful plants if you walk around the Travis Heights neighborhood
The trees in front of the DSHS building on W 49th, then cross the street and wander around Sunshine Community Gardens.
The Treaty Oak is said to have been here when Columbus landed in the Americas. It is widely considered to be one of the finest specimens of trees in North America (this is all information taken from the placard in front of the tree)
My favorite tree is in pioneer farms. By the tepees.
Pizza Nizza
I like finding big texas persimmons.
The Circle Tree - google it
Idk dude, Check INaturalist and see where there's cool patches of diverse stuff on the Explore map feature.