The Senator: Bald Cypress
Big Tree Park
Longwood, Florida
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The Tree Story

The 3,500 year bald cypress may appear to be a sleepy old grandfather in a swampy area near Orlando but in reality he is at the center of a heated competition with Louisiana's Old Cat bald cypress from Cat Island Swamp. The Senator is 118-ft. tall and the younger (only 1,500 years old) Old Cat  is shorter at 83-ft. But, Cat is fatter...53-ft. around versus the slimmer Senator at 35-ft.

Often called Florida's Methuselah Cypress, this bald cypress serves as a vision of the Old South much like the magnolia. Named in honor of Senator Overstreet in 1927, President Calvin Coolidge dedicated the park home for the tree in 1929.

For artist Stephen Malkoff capturing this imposing tree was a challenge and artistic victory.

The Heritage Oak
World Golf Village
St. Augustine, Florida
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The 250 year Heritage Oak is one of Malkoff's most impressive works. There is something about the drawing that has never been included before in a Malkoff historic drawing. The tree was preserved in a park as a centerpiece for the residents of the King and Bear neighborhood within the World Golf Village, near St. Augustine.

This privately-commissioned work is now available in limited edition prints signed by the artist.
 

The Family Tree
Rocky Creek Nursery, Morgan County, Georgia
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Every tree at the pencil point in the talented hand of artist Stephen Malkoff is special. Many of his artistic renderings come from the recommendations and requests of scores of collectors of Malkoff trees. However, the aged giant willow oak at Rocky Creek Nursery is a part of a Malkoff family tradition. Twice a year the Stephen and Lori Malkoff, their children and grandchildren journey to Morgan County, Georgia to allow the regal character of this willow to embrace them.

The Family Tree is situated amongst scores of Southern tree varieties in this 500 acre nursery located about 50 miles east of Atlanta.

Baranoff Oak
Safety Harbor - Tampa Bay, Florida
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For more than 200 years this giant live oak has been described as regal, elegant and a “southern charmer.” The tree was simply called the Safety Harbor Oak. It had no formal name.

In 2004 Safety Harbor's oak became the center piece for a sprawling new public park. It was then named the Baranoff Oak in honor of Dr. Stephen Baranoff, the doctor who owned the Safety Harbor spa more than 60 years ago. Dr. Baranoff was known for his civic contributions in this Tampa Bay Florida community.

With a trunk girth of nearly 20 feet, the Baranoff Oak meets the requirements of the prestigious Live Oak Society.

Oak Alley
Avenue of Oaks
St. Simons Island,, Georgia
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The Avenue of Oaks -- which Stephen Malkoff often calls Oak Alley -- is located on Retreat Avenue on St. Simons Island, Georgia. It is said that Anne Page King planted this famous oak-lined pathway more than 150 years ago. The oaks highlight the entrance to the Sea Island Golf Club.

The Avenue of Oaks served as the entrance to Retreat Plantation, an antebellum plantation known for its superior quality sea island cotton and extensive flower gardens.

William Bartram Oak
Bartram Trail - Astor, Florida
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Along the famous Bartram Trail this stunning oak tree grows near the roadside in Astor, Florida. Situated near Spaudling’s Upper Store the tree was said to have provided shade to one of America's most important naturalist/artist William Bartram. It is said that under this tree he prepared cuttings and seeds for shipment to England in 1774. For four years Bartram journeyed through the South and especially Georgia and Florida, seeking new species of plants.

The tree became one of Stephen Malkoff's favorites and its illustration by the artist is the subject of a Public Television documentary.

The Dueling Oak
New Orleans, Louisiana
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The Evangeline Oak
St. Martinsville, Louisiana
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One of the South's most famous if not most photographed trees -- The Evangeline Oak  -- is the subject of Stephen Malkoff's latest work of art.

As the story goes, it was under this huge oak that the Acadian maiden Evangeline came to rejoin her long lost love, only to learn he had moved on and she had missed him by a day.

As beautifully told by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his famous poem, "Evangeline," the sad tale has become part of the rich Acadian lore in St. Martinsville, Louisiana.

The Sidney Lanier Oak
Brunswick, Georgia 
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His fascination with the writings of Byron, Tennyson, and Scott, combined with a love of nature acquired while growing up in rural Georgia, led Sidney Lanier to a career as a poet and novelist.

For decades school children in the South would recite the verses of the Marshes Glynn where today in Brunswick near Jekyll Island stands the Lanier Oak symbolizing beauty and balance of nature and geography.

Born in Macon in 1842, Lanier served in the Confederate army; later a prisoner of war. He was first flutist with Baltimore's Peabody Orchestra and a professor at John Hopkins University. He died at the age of 39, a victim of tuberculosis contracted during the War.

Lanier's first novel, Tiger-Lilies, was based on his wartime experiences. All of his writings reflected his love of music, poetry, nature, and the "Old South" of his boyhood.

The Cummer Oak
Jacksonville, Florida 
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"Did Stephen Malkoff choose trees as the subject of his artistic talent, or did the trees choose Stephen?"  -- Maarten van de Guchte, Director of the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens. This elegant oak graces the Italian gardens as a focal point of one of Florida's museums of art.

Commissioned by a small group of benefactors, the original of Malkoff's now hangs in a prominent place in this legendary museum of fine art. The Cummer is also the site of Malkoff's first formal exhibition of his special art.

The Lichgate Oak
Tallahassee, Florida 
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Like the Seven Sisters Oak (see below) this elegant tree is a  member of the prestigious Live Oak Society. The Lichgate Oak is situated on High Road near the Old Town of the Indians. Its graceful bows spread over the estate of Laura Jepson who tells the story of the great Druid Oak in her book Lichgate on High Road.

The venerable Lichgate Oak is a centuries old Florida native who no doubt could tell its own stories of what history passed before it. Today it is home to a variety of tourist birds and remains the center piece of its neighbors of nature.

Great Banyan of Maui
Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii 
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A forest of one tree. Planted in 1873, this extraordinary fichus covers nearly an acre in center of a small island town. The tree has been not only the center of history but a witness to it as well.

Through the years, gardeners from the Japanese community hung large pickle jars, full of water, beneath aerial roots sprouting from the banyan's long limbs.  Hanging just out of their reach, the tree's roots lengthened until they reached the prepared earth bed.  Once there, the light roots began to thicken, and eventually formed a series of supporting columns for the ever-lengthening branches.  More than twelve decades later, standing 60 feet tall and measuring nearly one-fourth of a mile in circumference.

Seven Sisters Oak
Mandeville, Louisiana 
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This extraordinary 1,000 year old single oak of seven trunks is the "President" of the Live Oak Society.

This majestic oak looks out over Lake Pontchartrain. It was once at the center of life of the Acolapissa Indian tribe. Later, Union soldiers camped beneath its 132-ft. span of branches.

See more about this tree of Southern heritage. Click here

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