The University of Idaho Arboretum and Botanical Garden is a major

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 ...

and botanical garden in the northwestern United States, on the campus of the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. Located within a valley south of the President's Residence on Nez Perce Drive and adjacent to the UI Golf Course, its are open to the public daily without charge.

Shattuck Arboretum

The university's first arboretum was established in 1910 by Dr. Charles Houston Shattuck (1867–1931), the university's first professor of forestry and the first dean of the College of Forestry. He began planting a slope with hundreds of introduced trees and shrubs. His legacy, now a grove of mature trees, is one of Western North America's oldest university plantings with superior specimens of

American Beech ''Fagus grandifolia'', the American beech or North American beech, is a species of beech tree native to the eastern United States and extreme southeast of Canada. Description ''Fagus grandifolia'' is a large deciduous tree growing to tall, w ...

, California Incense-cedar, Field Maple, Eastern Hemlock, and an excellent Giant Sequoia. The older arboretum is located immediately west of the UI Administration Building and north of the President's Residence; it was named for Shattuck in 1933, two years after his death. Adjacent to the arboretum is an amphitheater available for lectures, concerts, barbecues, weddings, and other events.

New Development

The "New Arboretum" was conceived in the late 1970s with its first plantings in the former hayfield in 1982. It is divided into four geographical areas of plant origin: Asia, Europe, Eastern

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 Western North America. In addition, there are sections for display plantings and a xeriscape garden. The arboretum contains 829 species and 1799 taxa of trees and woody shrubs (as of 2005), with planting continuing at a sustained pace. For example, a total of 132 species and 270 taxa were planted in 2004.

Conifer Conifers are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single ...

s, ornamental species and cultivars of pear,

forsythia ''Forsythia'' , is a genus of flowering plants in the olive family Oleaceae. There are about 11 species, mostly native to eastern Asia, but one native to southeastern Europe. ''Forsythia'' – also one of the plant's common names – is ...

cherry A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The nam ...

, crabapple,

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 ...

, shrub rose, mock orange, magnolia,

tree peony Tree peony is the vernacular name for the section ''Moutan'' of the plant genus '' Paeonia'', or one of the species or cultivars belonging to this section. It consists of shrubs that have perennial aerial woody stems. Other peonies do not have ...

, maple, oak, and elm constitute the bulk of the collection. There are also dozens of unusual specimens. Some of the less common trees for the region include Dawn Redwood (''Metasequoia glyptostroboides''), Ginkgo (''Ginkgo biloba''), Camperdown Elms (''Ulmus glabra'' 'Camperdownii'), and cultivars of European Beech (''Fagus sylvatica''). The arboretum has many walking trails and benches; the loop distance around the arboretum is about . The first wedding held in the new arboretum was in July 1991; the bride was university president

Elisabeth Zinser Elisabeth Ann Zinser (born February 20, 1940) is a retired university president, most recently at Southern Oregon University (2001–06) in Ashland, Oregon. Previously she was the chancellor of the Lexington campus of the University of Kentucky ...

Shattuck Arboretum

New Development

See also