Browse Our Arboretum Trees

This tree is a grafted clone of the original Basswood which has been growing in Brookings Quad for more than 100 years.

This tree has dark green leaves which turn bronze in the fall. Its flowers are yellowish-green, and the female flowers yield edible beechnuts which ripen in the fall.

The American Chestnut is a historically and cuturally important tree that unfortunately has a sad story. This species used to be one of the biggest and most numerous trees in the Eastern United States, but it is now considered functionally extinct.

The American Elm is native to much of Eastern North America and grows in low, moist areas and along streams across the state of Missouri.

Native to much of the continental U.S., the American Hop Hornbeam is a great tree. It has orangish-brown, loose bark and catkins that stay on over winter making it an interesting and beautiful tree year-round.

The Sycamore is regarded as one of the largest trees native to eastern North America, and was historically prized by Native Americans for the construction of dugout canoes. Ecologically, they are early colonizers to newly available habitat, and support animal shelters as they mature.

The American Witchhazel is one of the few deciduous woody plants that flowers after the leaves fall. It typically flowers during October to December.

The Amur Cork Tree is native to China and Japan. The species is able to tolerate some drought conditions and urban pollutants. They are known for attractive, furrowed bark that resembles cork, as is apparent within its name.

This tree is native to wetlands and swamps in the Midwest but is adaptable to urban conditions. Its needlelike foliage turns russet red and drops in the fall.

The Bald Cypress is the state tree of Louisiana. Despite its resemblance to a needled evergreen tree in the summer, it is actually deciduous. The ‘Mickelson’ is a cultivar of the Bald Cypress, and has a narrower shape and denser foliage than the native species.

The Black Gum, also called Tupelo, is a Missouri native and flexible mid-western species capable of growing in both standing water and rocky slopes.

Boxelder Maple is notable because of the usual leaves this species has compared to all other native maples. Instead of the normal simple leaf, it instead has compound leaves, which means it has leaflets.

This tree is in the Fragaceae family and is native to Missouri. It is a deciduous tree with broad and rounded crown, which is good for shading. The leaves are leathery, dark green and turn to yellow-brown in fall. The oval acorns is large in size with fringed burry cups.

Even though it is called a buckthorn, Carolina Buckthorn has no spines. The shrub is well known for its bright red drupes during the summer. The fruit eventually mature to black and attracts many wildlife species, especially birds.

The best place to find this plant in the wild is the Great Smokey Mountains where they thrive. Squirrels love the four-winged, dry fruit, and Tennessee beekeepers describe it as a great honey tree. The wood is also sometimes used for cabinets, veneer, and carvings.

The wild Chokecherry is usually found in dense thickets due to its vast root system which can sprout runners, but on campus you will find them managed to prevent this. It blooms beautiful white flowers that eventually turn into dark purple fruit.

The Compton Hybrid Oak is a natural hybrid between the Southern Live Oak and the Overcup Oak and can be found in the areas with overlapping distributions of the two parent species.

A beautiful non-native from Europe and Asia, this tree shows off its gorgeous star-shaped, yellow flowers in early spring before its leaves emerge.

This tree is in the Magnoliaceae family and is native to Missouri. The cucumber tree is named by its cucumber-like fruit. The fruit is 2″ to 3″ long, slightly curved, and cylindrical, and to add to the cucumber appearance, the immature fruit is also green.

This tree species is originally native to the Himalayas range, but due to its high tolerance to heat for a true cedar, it is able to grow in certain specific conditions in the United States such as the St. Louis area.

This tree has many interesting features including late summer flowers, juicy black drupes, gigantic compound leaves, and sharp prickles covering many parts of the plant.

The Downy Hawthorn is a deciduous tree in the rose family, and is native to the Midwest. Despite the unpleasant scent and the presence of long thorns, the tree is much loved for the beauty of its flowers in the spring and fruits in the summer.

This Missouri native tree offers edible, berry-like fruit that changes color throughout the seasons. The competition for the fruit is stiff because they are a favorite of many bird species.

This tree is native to Eastern North America. In Missouri it grows in a variety of habitats across the state and is tolerant of a wide range of soil conditions.

This deciduous understory tree is the state tree of Oklahoma and is native to Missouri and much of the Eastern and Central US. It grows in medium moisture, medium fertility soils.

This small tree is a Missouri and Chicago-region native offering attractive bright red fruit and beautiful color in the fall.

The Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus) is considered to be the tallest tree east of the Rocky Mountains, and one of the most historically important. This tree, which ranges from 80′ up to 180+’ at its record tallest, was the premier tree for timber in North America in the 18th and 19th century. Due to its massive demand in furniture, construction, and farming, stands of this pine were dramatically wiped out by 1900.

This Asian hybrid Elm is a relatively small cultivar growing 35 feet high and 25 feet wide. It has glossy green leaves which turn yellow in the fall.

English Oak is native and found in mixed woodland areas and planted widely in North America since the 1600s. It has long been a timber source in England.

This beautiful non-native tree is adaptable to the Midwest. It has golden bronze leaves in the fall and its bark has a gray, elephant-hide appearance.

Often claimed as the most beautiful of North America’s native flowering trees, the Flowering Dogwood is the state tree of both Missouri and Virginia. Its early-spring blooms of showy white petals surrounding tiny clusters of yellow dogwood flowers are among the tree’s most dramatic characteristics.

A naturally occurring hybrid species of American Holly and Dahoon Holly, it was found growing in the wild in Florida in 1924. This is a broadleaf evergreen tree of small to medium stature that prefers well-drained, slightly acidic soil and dislikes extreme hot and cold temperatures.

This tree is a Missouri native which grows easily in fertile, moist soil. In the wild, it typically grows at forest transition boundaries, along stream banks, or in the margins of limestone glades.

This medium-sized tree is hardy and tolerant to drought, heat, and poor soil which make it well suited as a replacement for the many elms used residential landscapes and city streets.

The Full Moon Maple is a small, dense tree with unique large, showy leaves that is native to Japan. These leaves create beautiful fall foliage and are mainly sought after for landscaping.

This tree’s unique fan shaped leaves turn brilliant golden yellow in fall. This adjacent group of Ginkgos forms a historic allée that was part of the original 1927 Cope and Stewardson Plan for the university campus.

The ‘Autumn Gold’ evolved over 200 million years ago and can withstand extremely harsh conditions. The tree produces a beautiful gold leaf color in Autumn, hence the name.

This unique pest-resistant species originated in China and is the last species in its order Ginkgophyte, which was first found in fossils that dated back to the Permian period, 270 million years ago.

One of the more unique members of the Pine family (Pinaceae), this tree has a circular spray of soft, thick needles and mature cones that resemble upside down succulents or artichokes. Originating from eastern China, this species thrives in the warm, wet environments of the American Midwest and Southeast.

This tree’s unique foliage, summer blooming yellow flowers, and lantern-like fruit make it one of the most interesting trees in the campus forest.

This tree gets its name from the gummy sap contained in the tree’s leaves, branches, and bark, which does not pour out like a milkweed but rather pulls apart with sticky strings like half-dried glue. Native to China, this tree has been traditionally used to treat high blood pressure, liver, and kidney issues.

Hazel Alder is a multi-stemmed small tree and can grow to 20′ high and up to 15′ wide forming thickets by suckering. It is native from Nova Scotia to Illinois and Missouri south to eastern Texas and northern Florida. It is an ideal selection for naturalizing or rain gardens.

The Heritage Oak is a hybrid between the English Oak (Quercus robur) and the Bur Oak (Quercus macrocarpa), two similar white oaks from different continents. These closely related species produce a sturdy, fast-growing oak with the large acorns of the Bur Oak and fall colors of the English Oak.

This willow is a hybrid between the Bay Willow (Salix pentandra) and the Eastern Crack-willow (Salix euxina). It was developed at North Dakota State University and is known for its rounded shape, vigorous foliage, and its namesake reflective leaves that lend the ‘Silver Lake’ epithet.

The Japanese Cornel Dogwood boasts elegantly characteristic dogwood leaves, edible fruits (yet quite astringent when raw), and traditional medicinal use in East Asia for liver and kidney illnesses.

The Kwanzan variety is probably the hardiest of the double flowering cherry trees. Its new leaves are bronze colored and its fall color is a bronzy-orange. It blooms pink in mid spring and is the last of the cherry trees to bloom.

This small flowering tree belongs to a family of trees that are popular for their profuse spring flowers. This tree also produces its namesake crabapples, which are edible except for the seed, yet very small. Arbor Walk #11 has a dome-like shape and students often study underneath the tree’s canopy in hotter months.

The Japanese Maple has been cultivated in and around its native range for hundreds of years, and since the 1800s, has been symbolic of Japanese Gardens to Western observers.

A member of the Elm family which has been promoted as a replacement to American Elms because of its high degree of resistance to Dutch Elm Disease.

The Katsuratree’s native range in Japan and China. The ‘Rotfuchs’ cultivar is most commonly cultivated in the United States. In cultivation, it can grow to 60′ tall and is noted for its beautiful shape and attractive foliage.

This tree is a “seedless” variety of the native species. It is native to Missouri and the Midwest. Early settlers of Kentucky used the tree’s seeds as a coffee substitute, hence its common name.

This tree, native to Asia, is known for its four-petaled white flowers in June and its reddish-purple color in Fall.

The Lacebark Elm is a large elm native to China that is known for its intricate bark and durable wood. It has strong resistance to the deadly Dutch Elm Disease, making it an ideal planting or hybridization target.

The Little-Leaf Linden is uniquely adept at withstanding polluted environments, and is therefore a great shade tree for urban settings. It is a native to Europe and exists in the wild only in protected pockets of land, where it provides ecological benefits for moths and pollinators.

The Loblolly Pine is an iconic tree in the Southeastern United States, dominating the southern pine forests and being grown for lumber in plantations in the region. It is tall, skinny in shape, and a vigorous grower.

The London Planetree is a hybrid of the Oriental Plane (Platanus orientalis) and American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis), combining improved disease resistance with cold tolerance. The London Planetree is also extremely tolerant of pollution, and is even found to be an effective removal agent of air pollution particles.

This tree is native to Japan, although it has become endangered within its own native range. This cultivar was introduced at the Morton Arboretum in Illinois.

The Nannyberry Viburnum features edible berries that persist in winter and abundant white flowers. It is a tall shrub or small tree, reaching about 15′ in height as a multi-stemmed shrub, or pruned into one trunk up to 30′.

This shrub is quite rare, endemic to Maine, Massachusetts, and other isolated pockets along the East Coast from Nova Scotia to South Carolina. Its edible berries and pollen-tipped white flowers are notable characteristics of this plant, which inhabits sandy areas mainly along the coastline.

This Midwest native’s beautiful dense crown provides good shade, and along with its ability to tolerate air pollution and drought, has made it a landscaping favorite.

The Northern Spicebush is a shrub which is best known for its aromatic leaves and twigs, which give off a “spicy” smell not unlike in scent to its Lauraceae relatives, sassafras and cinnamon. This bush is widespread throughout the woodlands of the Eastern United States, often occupying shady areas underneath a hardwood canopy.

This European spruce is often planted in temperate regions of the United States as a wind blocker, as it can grow quickly and reach an average height of 60 feet in artificial habitats. The tree’s early branches are tilted upwards, but over time the branches adopt a more open and perpendicular stance.

The Nuttall Oak is a deciduous shade tree that is well-suited to urban settings due to its tolerance against wet soils, drought conditions, and most disease and pest problems. This is a fast-growing oak tree that is capable of growing in many different kinds of soils.

Though adaptable to most soils, this Missouri native tree is particularly prevalent in lowlands, floodplains, swamps and bayous in the Southeastern US and in the Mississippi River Valley.

One of the newer additions to the arboretum, this woody plant showcases ribbon-like flower clusters when in full bloom.

A type of maple originally native to the mixed forests of Central China, this species was introduced to the West through England in 1899 and transplanted to America soon after.

This Missouri native tree is predominantly found in the Mississippi River Valley, and in the American South where it is cultivated as an important commercial nut crop.

Also known as the Persian ironwood, the Persian Parrotia is known for its exfoliating bark which is particularly noticeable in the winter. When young, its leaves are reddish purple, and as it matures they will become dark green in the summer and yellow, orange, and red in the fall.

The pin oak is a popular tree that is planted because of its quick growth and the dense shade it provides. It has a distinct form that is pyramidal during early maturity but turns more oval later in life.