Descendent of Maryland’s Liberty Tree Planted at Londonderry on the Tred Avon

A new Liberty Tree grows in Maryland. A tulip poplar (Liriodendron Tulipifera), grown from seeds taken from scion grafted from the same DNA of the State of Maryland’s original Liberty Tree now graces the grounds of Londonderry on the Tred Avon.
This Liberty Tree was donated by the Maryland Forestry Foundation to honor Janice R. and John E. Foss, Londonderry residents whose daughter works with the Maryland Forestry Foundation. Janice died in June 2024, inspiring the idea for planting of the tree. John is an active Londonderry resident who spearheaded a recent effort to enroll Londonderry’s oldest tree specimens in the Foundation’s Big Tree Program.
“This Liberty Tree is an incredible addition to our campus,” said Londonderry CEO Christine Harrington. “Londonderry’s grounds have witnessed a lot of Maryland history, and we are honored to be the new home for a Maryland Liberty Tree.”
The first Liberty Tree was an elm in Colonial Boston, made symbolic when destroyed by British Troops in 1775. In response to the British Stamp Act tax on the colonies, Liberty Trees were designated in each of the 13 colonies as meeting places for the outlawed Sons of Liberty groups. From their meetings and discussions, the seeds of the American Revolution were planted and Founding Father Thomas Paine, author of Common Sense, immortalized the Liberty Tree in a poem.
Maryland’s Liberty Tree, a tulip poplar, on the campus of St. John’s College, in Annapolis, was famous as the last surviving of the colonial Liberty Trees. Experts date its origin to about 1599, making the tree at least 400 years old. The tree survived weather, several tree surgeries, fires, and even an explosion of two pounds of gunpowder, only to succumb to the winds of Hurricane Floyd in 1999. It was the largest known of its species in the United States, with a height of 124 feet, a circumference of 26 feet and a spread of 117 feet.
St. John’s College had the foresight to create a scion of the original Maryland Liberty Tree in the 1880s. Its genetics are duplicates of the original Liberty Tree, and seedlings are used in a Liberty Tree Project, a joint effort begun between St. John’s, the Allegany County Forestry Board, John S. Ayton State Tree Nursery, Allegany Soil Conservation District and W-22 Lions Club of Maryland to “regenerate trees of historic significance and promote the value and benefits of trees and the related history to current and future generations.