WEBVTT

00:00.320 --> 00:01.650
- Here at Arlington Cemetery,

00:01.650 --> 00:03.210
we're happy to have several

00:03.210 --> 00:06.080
Virginia champion and co-champion trees.

00:06.080 --> 00:08.060
And we recently discovered
that we actually have

00:08.060 --> 00:09.730
a new Virginia co-champion,

00:09.730 --> 00:11.980
and it's this tree right behind me,

00:11.980 --> 00:13.000
the tree that we're looking at,

00:13.000 --> 00:15.450
and it's actually a dwarf hackberry,

00:15.450 --> 00:18.990
which is known as celtis
tenuifolia in Latin.

00:18.990 --> 00:21.220
And it's a dwarf form of a hackberry tree,

00:21.220 --> 00:22.530
which is in the elm family.

00:22.530 --> 00:25.100
And we recently were
going through a survey

00:25.100 --> 00:28.520
that was done in 1960 by an
arborist named Jack McMillan,

00:28.520 --> 00:30.580
and he had identified
three dwarf hackberries

00:30.580 --> 00:31.900
in the cemetery.

00:31.900 --> 00:33.300
And we wanted to come out and confirm

00:33.300 --> 00:35.600
that we actually indeed
did have that species

00:35.600 --> 00:37.310
'cause it's not a common species,

00:37.310 --> 00:40.050
although it is native
to the Virginia area.

00:40.050 --> 00:41.310
And sure enough we did find

00:41.310 --> 00:43.450
that we had three dwarf hackberry trees.

00:43.450 --> 00:45.690
Some of the diagnostic characteristics

00:45.690 --> 00:49.383
of the dwarf hackberry versus
the common hackberry is shape,

00:49.383 --> 00:54.271
the crown has a very dense and
twisty form to the branches.

00:54.271 --> 00:57.900
The leaves are also much smaller
than the common hackberry,

00:57.900 --> 01:00.870
and the fruits have kind
of a yellow-orange color,

01:00.870 --> 01:02.450
and they're quite sweet when tasted,

01:02.450 --> 01:04.180
as opposed to a common hackberry

01:04.180 --> 01:08.490
which has darker fruit and is
typically tasteless or bitter.

01:08.490 --> 01:10.910
And we contacted the
Virginia Big Trees Program,

01:10.910 --> 01:12.840
and they came out and
they measured the trees

01:12.840 --> 01:15.440
to see if they would
qualify as a state champion,

01:15.440 --> 01:17.012
and in fact this tree
behind us did qualify

01:17.012 --> 01:20.160
as a state co-champion here in Virginia.

01:20.160 --> 01:21.520
So we're very happy to announce

01:21.520 --> 01:24.020
that we now have a new co-champion tree,

01:24.020 --> 01:24.980
the dwarf hackberry,

01:24.980 --> 01:26.780
here at Arlington National Cemetery.