I paid a visit in early August to the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, the oldest and maybe the most prestigious arboretum in the country. The arboretum was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who also designed Central Park in New York City, and the collections have a heavy emphasis on trees from North America and east Asia.

One of the Arnold’s big achievements was bringing the dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) to the United States. Until the 1940s, the genus Metasequoia was known only from fossil records. Chinese botanists discovered living specimens of the tree in China during World War II, and after the war as the word got out, the discovery of this “living fossil” made international headlines. The Arnold Arboretum funded an expedition in 1948 to collect and bring back seeds of the tree, and the dawn redwoods planted at the Arboretum were the first to grow in North America in over two million years. Thousands of the tiny seeds of the tree were distributed to botanic gardens around the world (the San Francisco Botanical Garden got some, which is how we have a dawn redwood), but the oldest and largest of the species outside of China are now at the Arnold Arboretum.

A grove of North America’s oldest dawn redwoods, just inside the entrance to the Arboretum.

I could have spent three or four hours at the arboretum, but I was there with my sister and brother-in-law, so we kept things to a reasonable couple of hours. It was fantastic to see so many species from eastern North America - where I grew up but some of the species were unfamiliar to me since I haven’t lived there for 37 years.

White pine is one that I know well from my childhood - it’s one of those tree species I recognize in a nanosecond. And there was a gorgeous one at the Arnold!

A gorgeous white pine (Pinus strobus) - my sister is giving it a thumb’s down; she has one in her yard in Barneveld, New York and isn’t a fan of the tree. We agreed to disagree! — A gorgeous white pine (*Pinus strobus*) - my sister is giving it a thumb’s down; she has one in her yard in Barneveld, New York and isn’t a fan of the tree. We agreed to disagree!

A large tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima). I think this is the largest one I’ve ever seen! — A large tree of heaven (*Ailanthus altissima*). I think this is the largest one I’ve ever seen!