Waldo, the info I looked up on your last indicates that species/variety/cultivar olnybgrows in northeast Illinois. At least that's what U of I tells us.
Not nigra Tom, but everyone is dancing around this one. I am really surprised it didn't go on the first few posts.
Yoyoman and I climbed this tree last summer. No fair to pm him.
Nah, everybody is over thinking this a little too much. Genus is correct. Over planted in the south but does OK orth too, just not seen that much fellows.
That one is 97 feet tall, 104 foot spread and 7 feet dbh. It fools a lot of people like that though Treezy. Kinda like being in the sequoia groves in the Sierra, everything is so large, it is hard to get your perspective right.
OK, that is a big one. The largest one I have taken down in the Carolinas was about 6feet dbh. A guy was going to make Australian slab tables from the trunk.