Donald E. Davis Arboretum

Last updated

The Donald E. Davis Arboretum
A Living Museum of Southeastern Native Plants
Donald E. Davis Arboretum footbridge 2011 DSCN5480.jpg
A bridge at Davis Arboretum (2011)
USA Alabama location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Donald E. Davis Arboretum
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Donald E. Davis Arboretum
Type Arboretum
MottoPromoting Education, Research, and Outreach
Location181 Garden Drive Auburn, Alabama 36830
Coordinates 32°35′44″N85°28′58″W / 32.59556°N 85.48278°W / 32.59556; -85.48278
Area13.5 acres (5.5 ha)
Established1963 (1963)
FounderDr. Donald E. Davis
Owned by Auburn University
Administered byMorgan Beadles, School of Biological Sciences
Open365 days a year
AwardsEagle Award, Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration grant
Paths1.2 miles (2km)
Waterpond and stream
PlantsNative
CollectionsRhodadendron And Azalea Collection, Southeastern Oaks Collection, George's Trillium Garden, Carnivorous Pitcher Bog
FacilitiesMain Pavilion, Outdoor class rooms, Nursery
Website Davis Arboretum

The Donald E. Davis Arboretum, in Auburn, Alabama, United States, is a public native plants museum, and botanical arboretum with educational facilities, event spaces, and a conservation program. [1] [2] Its grounds, covering 13.5 acres (4.5 hectares) of Auburn University's campus, include cataloged living collections of associated tree and plant communities representative of Alabama's ecosystems, [1] among which is mixed oak forest, carnivorous bog, and longleaf pine savanna. The living collections include more than 1,000 plant types, including 500 different plant species, with over 3,000 cataloged specimens. [2] The Arboretum contains over a mile (2 km) of interwoven walking trails that meander through various southeastern biotopes.

Contents

The arboretum's Rhododendron and Azalea Collection is one of the more extensive native azalea collections in the nation [3] [4] and the nationally accredited Oaks Collection contains over 40 regional Quercus species. [2] The arboretum partners in a number of conservation projects through the Alabama Plant Conservation Alliance (APCA) hosted by Auburn University and largely coordinated by the arboretum. [5]

History and mission

In 1959, by the proposal of Prof. Donald E. Davis, the Auburn University School of Agriculture passed a resolution asking that a plot of land located immediately south of the university president's home be used as an arboretum for Alabama's native trees. The plot, which was just north of the Old Rotation, contained forest, wetland, and pasture. Davis began surveying and working the Arboretum after its approval in 1963. [2] In 1977 the Arboretum was dedicated in his name. The mission of the Arboretum was established "to display and preserve living plant collections and native southeastern plant communities; to inspire an understanding of the natural world and our connection to it; and to promote education, research, conservation, and outreach." [1]

Cypress Pond class.jpg
Outdoor classroom by the Cypress dome
Founders Oak.jpg
Auburn Founders Oak
DEDavisArboretum Dry Bog1.jpg
Outdoor classroom by the Upland Carnivorous Bog

At the turn of the century, the Auburn Forestry department worked with the arboretum to document 900 tree specimens on campus and the arboretum's plant accessions database was built to facilitate an acorn collecting program to track the provenance of its specimens. [2] In 2002, Natureserve published a report showing that Alabama was among the most biologically diverse states in the nation. [6] This is in part because of the state's intersection of many physiogeographic regions creating ranges of species overlap. [7] Unfortunately, the state was also found to have the most extinctions in the continental US. [8] In light of this, staff and faculty from Auburn's School of Biological Sciences were invited to a meeting of the Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance, and it was agreed that they would establish and host The Alabama Plant Conservation Alliance. The Arboretum staff and special collections curator, Patrick Thompson, began participating with state and federal conservation departments, private land owners, as well as other universities, and gardens in the statewide conservation program. [5]

Conservation and collections

Along with working on in situ conservation projects throughout the state, the APCA starts ex situ populations with the aid of the arboretum's propagation program. The native plants nursery tracks accession provenance as well as participates in genomic ecotype studies with about 20 institutions. [2] [5] The Arboretum is also home to the only university plant collection accredited by the APGA’s Plant Collections Network in the SEC. It has one of two nationally accredited plant genera collections in the state of Alabama, the other being Huntsville Botanical Gardens Trillium collection. [2] [9]

Rhododendron

The Rhododendron collection is world-renowned, containing 60 varieties of Rhododendron and Azalea including its own Auburn Azalea Series of hybrids. [2] During their period of bloom, the Arboretum is host to the Auburn Azalea Festival. [4]

Quercus

The arboretum's conservation program has participated in The Tree Gene Conservation projects with APGA and the USDA Forest Service for four oak species including the rare Quercus boyntonii . [2] Its oak collection contains all 39 of Alabama's oak species plus two more from Tennessee and Arkansas. The collection includes Auburn University's Founders Oak ( Quercus stellata ), which became the most prized tree on AU campus, after the 2010 Iron Bowl arboricidal rampage on the ceremonious live oaks across from Toomer's Corner. [10] The Founders Oak, considered the "heart of the Davis Arboretum", was planted in 1850, six years before the founding of what is now called Auburn University. [2]

Carnivorous plants

The arboretum's Carnivorous Bog contains species from all carnivorous genera of the Deep South, Sarracenia (19 sp.), Drosera (3 sp.), Dionaea, Utricularia, and Pinguicula. [11]

APCA projects

After 2014, the Arboretum partnered with APCA members conserving populations of endangered species from the Cahaba Ketona glade such as Xyris spathifoli. Other statewide APCA projects include the restoration of Harper's ginger (Hexastylis speciosa), Eastern turkeybeard, Pondberry, Giant whorled sunflower ( Helianthus verticillatus), Green Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia oreophila), Alabama Canebrake Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia alabamensis), and various species in the 480 acre Haines Island Park on the Alabama River. [5]

Other notable species

Some notable species in the arboretum's collection include: [12]

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

Y

Z

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Delaware Botanic Gardens</span>

The University of Delaware Botanic Gardens are botanical gardens and an arboretum located on the campus of the University of Delaware, in Newark, Delaware, United States. The gardens are open to the public without charge.

The Alice Abel Arboretum is a 25 acres arboretum located at 5000 St. Paul Street on the campus of Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salisbury University Arboretum</span>

The Salisbury University Arboretum, formerly known as the Salisbury State University Arboretum, is an arboretum on the campus of Salisbury University, 1101 Camden Avenue, Salisbury, Maryland.

The Idaho State Arboretum is an arboretum located across the campus of the Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho, United States. It is open to the public daily without charge and includes an organized tree walk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fell Arboretum</span> Arboretum located in Normal, Illinois

The Fell Arboretum is an arboretum located across the campus of Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nichols Arboretum</span> Arboretum on the campus of the University of Michigan

Nichols Arboretum, locally known as the Arb, is an arboretum operated by the Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum (MBGNA) at the University of Michigan. Located on the eastern edge of its Central Campus at 1610 Washington Heights in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the Arboretum is a mosaic of University and City properties operated as one unit. The arboretum is open daily from sunrise to sunset with no charge for admission. The Huron River separates a northern section of the arboretum's floodplain woods; the railroad marks the northern border.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peavy Arboretum</span>

Peavy Arboretum is an arboretum operated by Oregon State University and located on Arboretum Road, Corvallis, Oregon. It is open to the public daily without charge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John J. Tyler Arboretum</span> United States historic place

Tyler Arboretum is a nonprofit arboretum located at 515 Painter Road, Middletown Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. It is open daily except for major holidays; an admission fee is charged to non-members.

The Plant Collections Network (PCN) is a group of North American botanical gardens and arboreta that coordinates a continent-wide approach to plant germplasm preservation, and promotes excellence in plant collections management. The program is administered by the American Public Gardens Association from its headquarters in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, in collaboration with the USDA Agricultural Research Service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests</span> Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion of the United States

The Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests is an ecoregion of the temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund. It consists of mesophytic plants west of the Appalachian Mountains in the Southeastern United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Appalachian–Blue Ridge forests</span> Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion of the United States

The Appalachian–Blue Ridge forests are an ecoregion in the Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests Biome, in the Eastern United States. The ecoregion is located in the central and southern Appalachian Mountains, including the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians and the Blue Ridge Mountains. It covers an area of about 61,500 square miles (159,000 km2) in: northeast Alabama and Georgia, northwest South Carolina, eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and central West Virginia and Pennsylvania; and small extensions into Kentucky, New Jersey, and New York.

Matelea alabamensis is a species of flowering plant in the dogbane family known by the common names Alabama milkvine, Alabama anglepod, and Alabama spiny-pod. It is native to the southeastern United States, where it occurs in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "About Us | The Donald E. Davis Arboretum". auburn.edu/cosam/arboretum/.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Davis Arboretum: A Forest on The Plains". Alabama's Treasured Forests. Alabama Forestry Commission: 4. Fall 2020.
  3. ↑ "Auburn Azalea Festival blooms Saturday&". auburnvillager.com.
  4. 1 2 "Auburn Azalea Festival 2020". aotourism.com.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Alabama Plant Conservation Alliance". auburn.edu.
  6. ↑ Stein, Bruce. A. (2002). States of the Union: Ranking America's Biodiversity. NatureServe.
  7. ↑ "BONAP state similarity in flora". bonap.org.
  8. ↑ Douglas W. Tallamy (2009). Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants. Timber Press. ISBN   978-0881929928.
  9. ↑ "Donald E. Davis Arboretum". publicgardens.org. Fall 2020.
  10. ↑ "Alabama fan pleads guilty to poisoning iconic Auburn oaks". USA Today. Retrieved November 12, 2018.
  11. ↑ "Alabama Plant Conservation Alliance Projects". auburn.edu. Fall 2020. p. 10.
  12. ↑ "Arboretum Plant List". auburn.edu. Fall 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.