Trees & Shrubs Tour

UW Campus
5/22/12
Day, 2012
1:30-2:30

We started off the trees & shrubs tour looking at a huge Horse Chestnut tree. It must have been about 50 feet tall with huge leaves, the biggest ones probably over a foot in diameter. There were lots of smaller sets of leaves growing out of the trunk of the tree as well. The horse chestnut is a poisonous tree and has these small white flowers all over. This is the tree responsible for all those small white flower petals that cover the ground in some areas on campus.

Next, we looked at a Pacific Madrone. Madrones are identifiable by their smooth and thick bunches of leaves that sort of hang over. The pacific madrone is also called the “refrigerator tree.” This is because there is no dead bark which makes the trunk cold to the touch. An interesting thing about these madrones is that their leaves are used to get rid of cramps and stomach aches and their berries are used to make cider.

The “Big Cone” Coulter Pine we saw was about maybe 40-50 feet tall. It had long thick needles, 3 per cluster and huge cones. The biggest cones can weigh up to 10lbs. What’s strange about this tree is that its needles somehow act as an herbicide. This could explain why there wasn’t much else around the Coulter Pine; although it was right next to a building so that may’ve been the reason also.

The last tree we looked at was the Ginko biloba. This tree is the oldest unchanged tree on Earth. I found that very interesting since we have so many right on campus. You’d think humans or other animals would’ve had some kind of impact on it. The only Ginko trees we have on campus though are male, seeing as the female trees have seeds that smell like vomit or ransid butter. The leaves of this Ginko biloba resembled those of a shamrock to me. And apparently the leaves are used in tea which has been used as an aphrodisiac and also to help concentration and memory.

Species List:
Pacific Madrone
Horse-chestnut
Ginko Biloba
Common Douglas Fir
Coulter Pine
English Elm

Posted on June 5, 2012 06:13 AM by lisad22