Native Cultivar | Washington University Arboretum | Washington University in St. Louis

American Elm

Arbor Walk #31, Treekeeper ID #2408

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.

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.

Black Gum

Arbor Walk #32, Treekeeper ID #2247

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.

Black Gum

Arbor Walk #91, Treekeeper ID #5922

The Black Gum, also known regionally as Black Tupelo, is a part of the Nyssaceae family, which used to be under the dogwood family.

Boxelder Maple

Arbor Walk #118

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.

Common Thornless Honeylocust

Arbor walk #78, Treekeeper ID #3229

The Honeylocust is a tough, medium-sized shade tree that usually grows around 60′ to 80′ tall. It has greenish-yellow to greenish-white flowers that appear in May or June.

Eastern Redbud

Arbor walk #38, TreeKeeper ID #3141

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.

Eastern Redbud, White

Arbor Walk #86, Treekeeper ID #5725

White Bud is a native cultivar to the Missouri Area with heart-shaped leaves. Its parentage comes from the native Red Bud seen throughout Missouri.

Flowering Dogwood

Arbor walk #53, Treekeeper ID #1410

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.

Osage Orange

Arbor walk #45, TreeKeeper ID #2621

This medium-sized tree has a short trunk and rounded crown. it produces large fruit (8-15 cm in diameter) which is roughly spherical, bumpy, and turns bright yellow-green in the fall.

Quaking Aspen

Arbor walk #109, TreeKeeper ID #5736

The Quaking Aspen gets its name due to its trembling leaves, which are caused by the tree's flattened, flexible petioles. This tree is in the Salicaceae (Willow) family and is native to Missouri; it is also recognized as having the widest geographical distribution of any tree in North America.

Red Maple

Arbor Walk #102, TreeKeeper ID #5818

The REDPOINTE is a cultivar of the Red Maple species, which is native to areas in Eastern North America. It’s a large deciduous tree known primarily for its bright red leaf color that can only be described as brilliant during the fall. The flowers, seeds, and twigs on the tree also have red color spread throughout.

River Birch

Arbor walk #93, TreeKeeper ID #5649

BIRCHES

BY ROBERT FROST

When I see birches bend to left and right

Across the lines of straighter darker trees,

I like to think some boy’s been swinging them.

But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay

As ice-storms do. Often you must have seen them

Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning

After a rain. They click upon themselves

As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored

As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.

Soon the sun’s warmth makes them shed crystal shells

Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust—

Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away

You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.

They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,

And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed

So low for long, they never right themselves:

You may see their trunks arching in the woods

Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground

Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair

Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.

But I was going to say when Truth broke in

With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm

I should prefer to have some boy bend them

As he went out and in to fetch the cows—

Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,

Whose only play was what he found himself,

Summer or winter, and could play alone.

One by one he subdued his father's trees

By riding them down over and over again

Until he took the stiffness out of them,

And not one but hung limp, not one was left

For him to conquer. He learned all there was

To learn about not launching out too soon

And so not carrying the tree away

Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise

To the top branches, climbing carefully

With the same pains you use to fill a cup

Up to the brim, and even above the brim.

Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,

Kicking his way down through the air to the ground.

So was I once myself a swinger of birches.

And so I dream of going back to be.

It’s when I’m weary of considerations,

And life is too much like a pathless wood

Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs

Broken across it, and one eye is weeping

From a twig’s having lashed across it open.

I'd like to get away from earth awhile

And then come back to it and begin over.

May no fate willfully misunderstand me

And half grant what I wish and snatch me away

Not to return. Earth’s the right place for love:

I don’t know where it's likely to go better.

I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,

And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk

Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,

But dipped its top and set me down again.

That would be good both going and coming back.

One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

River Birch

Arbor Walk #94, TreeKeeper ID #5861

BIRCHES

BY ROBERT FROST

When I see birches bend to left and right

Across the lines of straighter darker trees,

I like to think some boy’s been swinging them.

But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay

As ice-storms do. Often you must have seen them

Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning

After a rain. They click upon themselves

As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored

As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.

Soon the sun’s warmth makes them shed crystal shells

Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust—

Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away

You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.

They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,

And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed

So low for long, they never right themselves:

You may see their trunks arching in the woods

Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground

Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair

Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.

But I was going to say when Truth broke in

With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm

I should prefer to have some boy bend them

As he went out and in to fetch the cows—

Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,

Whose only play was what he found himself,

Summer or winter, and could play alone.

One by one he subdued his father's trees

By riding them down over and over again

Until he took the stiffness out of them,

And not one but hung limp, not one was left

For him to conquer. He learned all there was

To learn about not launching out too soon

And so not carrying the tree away

Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise

To the top branches, climbing carefully

With the same pains you use to fill a cup

Up to the brim, and even above the brim.

Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,

Kicking his way down through the air to the ground.

So was I once myself a swinger of birches.

And so I dream of going back to be.

It’s when I’m weary of considerations,

And life is too much like a pathless wood

Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs

Broken across it, and one eye is weeping

From a twig’s having lashed across it open.

I'd like to get away from earth awhile

And then come back to it and begin over.

May no fate willfully misunderstand me

And half grant what I wish and snatch me away

Not to return. Earth’s the right place for love:

I don’t know where it's likely to go better.

I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,

And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk

Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,

But dipped its top and set me down again.

That would be good both going and coming back.

One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

Sugar Maple

Arbor Walk #46, Treekeeper ID #2067

This iconic tree is native to much of Eastern North America, where it is a dominant component of hardwood forests from Canada to Missouri.

Sugar Maple

Arbor Walk #87, Treekeeper ID #5825

'Bailsta' is a cultivar of the Sugar Maple. It can grow to 50' tall by 40' wide, with a much wider, more rounded form than most Sugar Maples.

Sugar Maple

Arbor walk #98, Treekeeper ID #5652

This tree is in the Sapindaceae family and is one of the easiest and strongest maples to grow. Caddo Maples are native to southwestern Oklahoma and are resistant to heat and drought.

Sugar Maple

Arbor Walk #124

The 'Monumentale' cultivar incorporates a unique columnar shape to the Sugar Maple while still retaining its iconic leaves and fall colors.

Sweetgum

Arbor Walk #15, Treekeeper ID #1439

This tree's star shaped leaves provide great fall color. Its fruits are the spiky "gum balls" which can hang on the tree all winter.

Sweetgum

Arbor walk #35, Treekeeper #2995

This low-maintenance deciduous shade tree is native to much of the Eastern US and in Southeast Missouri, usually in low, wet, woodland areas or along stream beds. It has a variety of human-use applications such as chewing gum, incense, perfume, and medicine.

Tulip Tree

Arbor Walk #88, Treekeeper ID #5650

Emerald City® is a commercially developed cultivar of the Missouri native Tulip Tree. J. Frank Schmidt & Son Co. created the cultivar to be cold-tolerable and stand straight, making it suitable to city sized landscapes. The trees grow to be 55' tall and 25' wide. The foliage is an attractive glossy dark green. The trunk develops furrowed fissures as they reach maturity. Tree #88 was planted in a triad with two other Emerald City® Tulip trees.

Ware’s Oak

Arbor Walk #79, TreeKeeper ID #2226

Selected from a batch of chance seedlings collected from the campus of University of Missouri Columbia, this cultivar is a cross between the English Oak and the Swamp White Oak. The tree grows to quite a large size with a distinct columnar form.