Distinguished Trees of Swarthmore
Andrew Bunting and some colleagues in front of the sole remaining dawn redwood in Hubei, China, in 2014. Photo courtesy of Andrew Bunting
In 2003, the Swarthmore Tree Committee established the designation “Distinguished Tree of Swarthmore.” The borough is arguably one of the most tree-diverse municipalities in the United States, and the program was created to promote this. It celebrates all the great trees of the borough, especially those on private property.
Swarthmore has long valued trees, and many local homeowners have been tree collectors. This was undoubtedly influenced by the early Quaker founders of Swarthmore College, who revered trees and started preserving and planting them as soon as the college was founded in 1864. The Scott Arboretum, established in 1929, also played a role.
Early Swarthmore families promoted trees too. The Cressons established an extensive homestead, Hedgleigh, on the corner of Dartmouth and Swarthmore avenues (surrounded by a hedge of Thuja ‘Green Giant’), as well as the gardens of Hedgleigh Spring on Amherst Avenue. Today, generations later, the Hedgleigh Spring gardens are maintained and cultivated by Charles Cresson.
Several trees have already received the Distinguished Tree distinction. Some of the recipients are sugar maples, Acer saccharum; northern catalpas, Catalpa speciosa; and the Franklin tree, Franklinia alatamaha (named by William Bartram for his colleague Benjamin Franklin and now extinct in the wild). Also American and European beeches, Fagus grandifolia and Fagus sylvatica respectively; several tulip trees, Liriodendron tulipifera; many majestic white oaks, Quercus alba; two rare pond cypress, Taxodium ascendens, on Cornell Avenue; and two examples of the storied dawn redwood, Metasequoia glyptostroboides.
The dawn redwood is a great example of a Swarthmore heritage tree. 222 Cornell Ave. (front yard) and 31 Oberlin Ave. (backyard) sport amazing specimens of Metasequoia glyptostroboides. In fact, the specimen on Oberlin ties with a specimen at the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania as the largest Pennsylvania state champion tree (pabigtrees.com).
In the early 1940s, the dawn redwood was only known to exist as a prehistoric fossilized plant record. But, in 1943, a Chinese botanist discovered a single living specimen growing in Hubei Province. A few years later, the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University supported an expedition to bring seeds to the United States. In 1947, Gladys Hayes, who owned the Oberlin Avenue property, received three seedlings from the Arnold Arboretum. Probably around the same time, Scott Arboretum director John Wister received his own Harvard redwood seedlings. The arboretum hosts several specimens.
At 215 Vassar Ave., you can find one of Swarthmore’s classic and probably original street trees, a sugar maple, Acer saccharum. Large sugar maples — probably over a hundred years old — can be found on Harvard and Vassar avenues, as well as in other older sections of the borough.
Another stunning street tree, the white oak, Quercus alba, can be found at 501 Harvard Ave. This part of Swarthmore has remnants of the woods that predate development of the borough. These forests would have been made up of American beech, Fagus grandifolia, and a number of species of oaks, including the white oaks. The tree at 501 Harvard Ave. is undoubtedly one of these trees and is likely 150-200 years old, or even older.
The side yard of 315 Union Ave. is home to another iconic tree for this area, the tulip tree, Liriodendron tulipifera. These are very fast-growing trees, so estimating its age is difficult. These are the tallest trees native to our woodlands, reaching over 120 feet.
The tree committee encourages anyone to nominate a Swarthmore tree for distinguished status. It can be an exceptional tree on your own property or a tree you have admired somewhere else. It should stand out from the other trees with regards to maturity or rarity — or perhaps by being an exquisite specimen.
To submit a nomination, contact me, Andrew Bunting, at abunting@pennhort.org. Please include (if you know):
Species name (common and/or scientific).
Your name.
Address of property where the tree grows.
Owner of the tree (if it is not you).
Location of the tree on the property (“street tree,” “backyard,” etc.).
Date it was planted.
Why do you think it is exceptional, and any historical or anecdotal information.
Your phone number.
Your email address.
As part of the review process, a few members of the tree committee will contact you and arrange to see your tree. Nominators and homeowners will be notified if their tree receives the Distinguished Tree of Swarthmore distinction, and each year the winners will be published in the Swarthmorean. The tree will be added to the tree committee’s webpage, and ultimately a map of Swarthmore’s distinguished trees will be created.
There is no limit on the number of nominations one person can make. Our goal is to capture and document the great trees of Swarthmore, whether they be ancient trees or relatively young trees that you think are special.
Andrew Bunting serves on Swarthmore’s tree committee and is vice president of public horticulture at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.
