2017 has been a magnificent year at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. The trees, shrubs, and lianas dazzled, but of course, not in exactly the same way as in 2016, or for that matter, any other year since the dawn of time. To begin 2018, I share 12 moments from my wanderings in the […]
Over the past few weeks, I have been repeatedly drawn to the North American oak collection on the southwest flank of Bussey Hill. There is something truly grand about this cathedral-like space, with soaring trunks and arched canopies meeting to create a magnificent vaulted ceiling overhead. You enter this architectural and botanical space and are set […]
Last week, I came across several “crazy snake worms” happily wriggling through fallen leaves in the landscape. This was surprising, since the adults are usually gone by this point in the season, killed by hard autumn frost and survived only by their overwintering eggs. However, the unseasonably warm weather this year has prolonged the life […]
On October 23, 2017, the Arnold Arboretum hosted Dr. A. Hope Jahren, author of the New York Times Best Seller, Lab Girl, for a very special talk delving into her life as a scientist, mother, and friend, and her lifelong relationship with plants. The sold-out event drew a crowd of over 100 people including […]
When I look at these pictures, I can practically smell them! And my hope is that you will take my advice and go smell for yourself. Because, no one can be said to truly know the ginkgo without experiencing the aroma of the seeds right about now. Ginkgo biloba is dioecious, with separate seed-bearing trees and […]
When is the last time you took a long leisurely walk in a natural setting? Or sat under a tree and observed the many stories playing out in nature? Have you ever considered that when you touch a tree, perhaps this tree is simultaneously touching you? As humans industrialize at lightning speed, we have become […]
By Robert Dowell and Kea Woodruff During the last week of September, an Arboretum plant collecting team including Living Collections Fellow Robert Dowell and Weld Hill Growth Facilities Manager Kea Woodruff ventured through the diverse Ozark landscapes of Northwest Arkansas and Southwest Missouri to secure living plant material for The Campaign for the Living Collections. […]
This week has offered spectacular blue skies to witness fall colors interacting with the low angle of the sun in the mornings and late afternoons. The near mythical golds of the hickories (bottom right; Carya glabra, the pignut hickory; 23166*A), larches (bottom left; Larix decidua var. polonica, the Polish larch, a red-listed taxon native only […]
The Arnold Arboretum is nothing short of spectacular this week, with whole hillsides ablaze and astonishing landscape scale views everywhere. But, my mind kept focusing on the minute; the individual leaves and extraordinary beauty of their edges. Perhaps it is the brilliance of autumnal colors that brings leaf shape into such vivid display. Sugar maple […]
Conifers, fall, yew, 1925 Alternate Title: Japanese Yew (Taxus cuspidata densa) in the Conifer Collection Photograph by Ernest Henry Wilson (1876-1930, American, English) Yew Collection, Conifer Collection, Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, United States November 19, 1925 A larger version of this image is available in HOLLIS, the online catalog of Harvard Library. Ernest Henry […]
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