SIGNIFICANT TREES
at Mount Auburn
By Dennis Collins Horticultral Curator
P eople always ask me if I have a favorite tree at Mount Auburn . If they hope for a simple answer , they rarely get one . I usually say something about how when I started at Mount Auburn in 1990 , I had a number of favorites — but they are all long gone . Not all at once , of course , but one by one , as a result of various hurricanes , ice storms , blizzards , droughts , and disease / insect problems . Eventually I decided to stop having personal favorites . However , I am human , and I ’ ll admit that I am constantly tempted to have new “ favorites ” among the roughly 5,000 trees here .
A year ago , our president , Matthew Stephens , asked us to come up with a list of Mount Auburn ’ s most significant trees . Some of you may remember the self-guided tour maps we used to offer at the gatehouse : Big Trees at Mount Auburn and The Most Unusual Trees at Mount Auburn . The trees featured in these brochures were the first to be considered for this new list . Eventually , we settled on 82 trees . That high of a number might seem to suggest that we were being indecisive , but I can assure you there were many excellent specimens that didn ’ t make the cut .
The first question was how to define “ significant ”. In the end , we decided to place equal value on a specimen ’ s age , aesthetic appearance , and rarity . The oldest trees in our collection are 22 oaks , which are all native species of white , black , red , and scarlet oaks , plus some hybrids between these species . We believe these predate Mount Auburn ’ s founding in 1831 . From this group , 16 were selected for the list . Many of the “ big trees ” that qualify as state champions for their species also made the list . But rarity counted too . Four relative unknowns made the list . Juglans nigra ‘ Laciniata ’ ( Cut-leaf Black Walnut ) is a graceful ornamental tree with a soft , feathery texture due to its foliage , which is similar to that of the common Cut-leaf Japanese Maple . Seldom seen in the nursery trade , our old specimen ( Chestnut Avenue ) was purchased in 1939 from the now defunct Kohankie Nursery of Ohio . Despite searching for more than 20 years , I have only found it offered for sale once , from Broken Arrow Nursery in CT . Our younger tree ( not far from the original specimen ) dates from that Broken Arrow accession in 2013 . It is extremely difficult to propagate , which probably explains why nurseries seldom attempt it .
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Opposite page : Juglans nigra ‘ Lacinata ’ ( Cut-leaf Black Walnut ) off of Chestnut Avenue