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The Orland E. White Arboretum, officially the State Arboretum of Virginia, is an 
Graham F. Blandy bequeathed 700 acres of his 900-acre estate known as Blandy Farm to Virginia to use horticultural research. The farm's first director, Orland Emile White, established the arboretum a year after Blandy's death and upon White's retirement in 1955 it was named in his honor. Early research focused on 
Today the arboretum is maintained primarily for environmental research and education for university, K-12 and general audiences. It contains more than 8,000 trees and woody shrubs, representing over 1,000 species and cultivated varieties of plants in 50 plant families. Of particular interest are its collection of
arboretum
An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, man ...
(172 acres) operated by the University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...
as part of the Blandy Experimental Farm (700 acres). It is located at 400 Blandy Farm Lane, Boyce, Virginia
Boyce is a town in Clarke County, Virginia, Clarke County, Virginia, United States. The population was 749 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, up from 589 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 census.
Geography
Boyce is located in west ...
, and open to visitors daily from dawn to dusk without fee.
Graham F. Blandy bequeathed 700 acres of his 900-acre estate known as Blandy Farm to Virginia to use horticultural research. The farm's first director, Orland Emile White, established the arboretum a year after Blandy's death and upon White's retirement in 1955 it was named in his honor. Early research focused on cytological
Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living and ...
reconstruction of plant phylogenies
A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological spec ...
and the consequences of irradiation-induced mutation
In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, mi ...
s. It became the official State Arboretum in 1986.
Today the arboretum is maintained primarily for environmental research and education for university, K-12 and general audiences. It contains more than 8,000 trees and woody shrubs, representing over 1,000 species and cultivated varieties of plants in 50 plant families. Of particular interest are its collection of boxwood
''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood.
The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...
cultivars (said to be the largest in North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
) and its pine
A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...
collection, representing over half of the world's species. Other arboretum features include a ''Ginkgo biloba
''Ginkgo biloba'', commonly known as ginkgo or gingko ( ), also known as the maidenhair tree, is a species of tree native to China. It is the last living species in the order Ginkgoales, which first appeared over 290 million years ago. Fossils ...
'' grove (more than 300 trees), the Virginia Native Plant Trail (established 1997), extensive meadows, and plantings of azalea
Azaleas are flowering shrubs in the genus ''Rhododendron'', particularly the former sections ''Tsutsusi'' (evergreen) and '' Pentanthera'' (deciduous). Azaleas bloom in the spring (April and May in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, and Octob ...
, beech
Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engle ...
, buckeye, catalpa
''Catalpa'', commonly called catalpa or catawba, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae, native to warm temperate and subtropical regions of North America, the Caribbean, and East Asia.
Description
Most ''Catalpa'' are decidu ...
, Cedar of Lebanon
''Cedrus libani'', the cedar of Lebanon or Lebanese cedar (), is a species of tree in the genus cedrus, a part of the pine family, native to the mountains of the Eastern Mediterranean basin. It is a large evergreen conifer that has great religi ...
, crabapple
''Malus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 30–55 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the family Rosaceae, including the domesticated orchard apple, crab apples, wild apples, and rainberries.
The genus is native plant, native to the temper ...
, holly
''Ilex'' (), or holly, is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...
, lilac
''Syringa'' is a genus of 12 currently recognized species of flowering plant, flowering woody plants in the olive family or Oleaceae called lilacs. These lilacs are native to woodland and scrub from southeastern Europe to eastern Asia, and wid ...
, linden, magnolia
''Magnolia'' is a large genus of about 210 to 340The number of species in the genus ''Magnolia'' depends on the taxonomic view that one takes up. Recent molecular and morphological research shows that former genera ''Talauma'', ''Dugandiodendro ...
, maple
''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since http ...
, stuartia, and viburnum
''Viburnum'' is a genus of about 150–175 species of flowering plants in the moschatel family Adoxaceae. Its current classification is based on molecular phylogeny. It was previously included in the honeysuckle family Caprifoliaceae.
The membe ...
.
See also
*List of botanical gardens in the United States
This list is intended to include all significant botanical gardens and arboretums in the United States.Blandy Experimental Farm: The State Arboretum of Virginia
References
Arboreta in Virginia White Research Arboretum Protected areas of Clarke County, Virginia University of Virginia {{ClarkeCountyVA-geo-stub