Mississippi Library Commission Blog: I Think That I Shall Never See, A Poem Lovely as a Mississippi Tree

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

I Think That I Shall Never See, A Poem Lovely as a Mississippi Tree

Magnolia

Mimosa

I know, I know. I've thrown the meter of Mr. Kilmer's sweet poem completely out of kilter. You see, though, one of our Meebo patrons wanted to know which tree(s) are most common here in the Magnolia State. Different types of trees began running through my head, interspersed with Trees. I knew that the Magnolia is the state tree, but I doubted that they outgrow every other tree. Mimosas are my least favorite tree, but even though there seem to be more and more of those spiky pink flowers blooming every spring, I didn't think they're number one either. I set my thinking cap straight and checked the Mississippi Forestry Commission. Surely they would be able to help (and they did!) According to them,

Forestland covers 19.6 million acres in Mississippi or about 65 percent of the land area. The majority of forests are classified as timber. One hundred and thirty-seven tree species were measured on Mississippi's forests in the 2006 inventory. Thirty-six percent of Mississippi's forestland is classified as loblolly-shortleaf pine forest, 27 percent is classified as upland oak-hickory forest and 19 percent is composed of bottomland hardwoods.

I should have figured on the pine tree. What a true Mississippi poem!