The Arboretum, State Botanical Garden of Kentucky (Also known as University of Kentucky Arboretum or Lexington Arboretum), 40 hectares or , is located at the
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentu ...
in
Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, Fayette County. By population, it is the List of cities in Kentucky, second-largest city in Kentucky and List of United States cities by popul ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. It is open to the public from dawn to dusk every day of the year. The Arboretum hosts 18 tree species native to Kentucky, as well as 80 other native Kentucky plant species. In total, the Arboretum contains more than 1,200 native species.
It contains the Kentucky Children's Garden, a Home Demonstration Garden which includes a Vegetable Garden, Herb Garden, Home Fruit and Nuts Garden, a rose garden, a fragrance garden, (including
Black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...
,
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
Pecan
The pecan (''Carya illinoinensis'') is a species of hickory native to the southern United States and northern Mexico in the region of the Mississippi River. The tree is cultivated for its seed in the southern United States, primarily in Georgia, ...
, Shellbark and Shagbark
Hickory
Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes around 18 species. Five or six species are native to China, Indochina, and India (Assam), as many as twelve are native to the United States, four are found in Mexi ...
apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
cultivar
A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...
s, an
American Persimmon
''Diospyros virginiana'' is a persimmon species commonly called the American persimmon, common persimmon, eastern persimmon, simmon, possumwood, possum apples, or sugar plum. It ranges from southern Connecticut to Florida, and west to Texas, ...
and native Pawpaw trees), the All-America Selection Trials Garden, Perennial Collection, Ground Cover Demonstration, Woody Plant Collection, and a "Walk Across Kentucky" that simulates Kentucky's seven regional landscapes: Bluegrass, Knobs, Appalachian Plateaus, Cumberland Mountains, Mississippian Plateaus and Outer
Nashville Basin
The Nashville Basin, also known as the Central Basin, is a term often used to describe the area surrounding Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in which Nashville is located. The Central Basin was caused by an uplifting which produced a dome known as the N ...
(Pennyroyal), Shawnee Hills,
Mississippi Embayment
The Mississippi embayment is a physiographic feature in the south-central United States, part of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. It is essentially a northward continuation of the fluvial sediments of the Mississippi River Delta to its conflu ...
and Alluvial Basin ( Jackson Purchase). The separate areas allow the Arboretum to create different learning events based on different parts of Kentucky. The Arboretum is also used widely as a learning environment, bringing in classes from local schools to come and learn with hands-on experiences, like the life cycle of a butterfly. Older nature enthusiasts can attend demonstrations in the home garden demonstration garden.
Maintaining the Arboretum
The Friends of the Arboretum is an organization that supports the Arboretum. They offer many opportunities for volunteering at the Arboretum. As of 2014 the Director of the Arboretum, Molly Davis, has set many goals such as expansion of the visitor's center and continue to fight against invasive plants. In order to do this the Arboretum needs funding. While the government and personal donations are where the funding comes from now, the Arboretum still needs more funding to expand on things such as a bigger visitors center and an enhanced prairie area. In April 2021, a class studying invasive species from the University of Kentucky went to the Arboretum to try to manage the invasive species. They found wintercreeper (Euonymus fortunei), which is a leafy evergreen plant that can take over an area very fast. The team managed to destroy an area of wintercreeper and found that native trillium growing back where the area was.
History and events
In 1990, land from the College of Agriculture was donated to be a joint venue between the College of Agriculture and the city of Lexington. The Arboretum was created in 1991, at which time it was overrun with non-native invasive plants such as
honeysuckle
Honeysuckles are arching shrubs or twining vines in the genus ''Lonicera'' () of the family Caprifoliaceae, native to northern latitudes in North America and Eurasia. Approximately 180 species of honeysuckle have been identified in both contin ...
and
wintercreeper
''Euonymus fortunei'', the spindle, Fortune's spindle, winter creeper or wintercreeper, is a species of flowering plant in the family Celastraceae, native to east Asia, including China, Korea, the Philippines and Japan. It is named after the Scot ...
. The removal of such invasive plants has been and continues to be a major goal of Arboretum staff and volunteers. Every year, the Arboretum has hosted Arbor Day events, and every year there is a different theme. The Arbor Day events mark the beginning of the season, with many attractions happening all day. The peak season of the Arboretum is April 1 to October 31. If you were to take a walk through the Arboretum, chances are you'll see many different things. You could see students sitting on the grass studying, or people walking their dogs on the "Walk Across Kentucky" path. Depending on the time of year, you could even see concerts. Most people go to the Arboretum to enjoy the botanical garden and the outdoors, walk the trails, to let their children play outdoors, to take photos, and for school related trips.
In 1994, the Children's Garden was thought of, then ten years later a conceptual design was drawn, and construction began in 2007. The Children's Garden was originally thought to be "a living library," the goal being the children could play in the water, get in the water, and climb on things. The children's Garden is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Effects on Lexington
Since the Arboretum has been in place, the town of Lexington has undergone many environmental changes, such as less harmful runoff and less . Both continue to decrease as the arboretum grows. Both are also good for the city as they attempt to become a more environmentally friendly city.
Research about the Arboretum
There has been research on the woodland of the Arboretum that began in 1940. In 1968 the Natural Resources Conservative Service of the US Department of Agriculture mapped the soil as mostly Maury silt loam. A recent mapping redefined the soil as a mixture of Maury and Bluegrass. They found the Arboretum is dominated by black walnut in the canopy and hackberry in the sub-canopy. These trees are native to the area but there are plants such as the yellow poplar that are native to the region but were planted in the Arboretum in the 1950s. Also, in the 1950s the Forestry Department at the University of Kentucky put up a fence to exclude cattle and also be able to track undisturbed growth. The fence was a woven wire and 1.5 m high, there have been no deer in the Arboretum for almost a century. In the 1990s nonnative shrubs were eliminated, Lonicera maackii and Euonymus alatus.
Gallery
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