Arboretum Plant Collections

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Native Woody Plant Collection Checklist

Checklist of Woody Plants in the Native Plant Collections
(Requires frames)

INTRODUCTION

A primary focus of the Connecticut College Arboretum is to collect, cultivate and display woody plants native to Eastern North America which are hardy in Southeastern Connecticut. This Checklist enumerates the taxa of trees, shrubs and woody vines accessioned into the Arboretum's plant collection database and growing in the Native Woody Plant Collection. It is intended to serve as a guide to this collection for both visitors and students of the native flora.

This checklist was developed as part of Michael Harvey's Senior Honor's Thesis for the Connecticut College Botany Department (Harvey 1994). It was updated in 1996 and again in 2000 by including all new taxa added to the Native Woody Plant Collection from June 1994 through June 2000. The accompanying map shows this approximately 20 acre area, which is bounded by Williams Street and the main College campus to the east, Gallows Lane to the north, the Bolleswood Natural Area to the west, and a chain-link fence to the south. The numbers on the map refer to specific plant collection areas, and will assist in the location of specimens.

Taxa are placed within one of two major divisions, either the division Pinophyta (Gymnosperms), the cone bearing plants, or the division Magnoliophyta (Angiosperms), the flowering plants. Within these divisions, plant taxa are further grouped into their class, subclass, order, family, and genus according to the arrangement followed by Gleason and Cronquist (1991). Species are listed alphabetically within each genus. Nomenclature also follows Gleason and Cronquist, with the exception of plants not included in this source. Most other plant names are from "Hortus Third" (L.H. Bailey Hortorium, 1976). For the genus Kalmia, nomenclature is from the "Checklist of Cultivated Laurels" (Richard Jaynes, 1983). Rhododendron cultivar names are from Galle (1985).

Both the scientific and common names for each plant family are provided in the Checklist. Following each plant name is the author of that species. Plant varieties and forms have also been placed in italicized bold face, and are indicated by 'var.' and 'f.', respectively. Cultivars are enclosed in single quotes and are printed in plain type. Commonly used synonyms, including the names used in the past two Checklists, appear in parentheses. Common names for each species are provided, and appear in ALL CAPS. The numbers and location names at the end of each passage refer to the specific collection area in which plants of that taxa are growing, and correspond to the area numbers indicated on the map accessible from the Checklist page.

Previous Arboretum checklists (Goodwin, et. al. 1950, Robinson 1980 with 1984 addendum by Dreyer) listed all woody plants growing in the Native Plant Collection, including non-accessioned material, many of which were neither planted nor cultivated. The 1950 list was actually a woody flora of all College property, including cultivated material on the main campus and plants growing wild on other tracts. This Checklist differs from the two previous ones in excluding those species growing without cultivation. Thus naturalized exotic weed species such as Celastrus orbiculatus, Lonicera japonica, Berberis thunbergii and Euonymus alatus are (unfortunately) present in the collection area but not included in this checklist. As of summer 1996 the Native Woody Plant Collection contained 288 accessioned taxa, a significant increase over the 194 species (counting naturalized exotics) listed by Robinson in 1980 and the total of 235 cited by Dreyer in 1984.

Curation of Arboretum plant collections includes attaching accession labels (small metal tags) with the botanical name and an accession number to each specimen. Some plants also have "display labels" which include common and botanical names, and may also indicate plant family and geographic origin. There are detailed maps on file in the Arboretum Office for each plant collection area which indicate planting locations, names and accession numbers. Collection information is managed using BG-Base, a computer program specifically designed for plant collection curation.

The Connecticut College Arboretum curates two other major plant collections: the Caroline Black Garden, located across Route 32 from the main College entrance; and the Campus Landscape, which currently comprises all trees on the main campus between Williams Street and Route 32.

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LITERATURE CITED

Dowhan, J.J. 1979. Preliminary Checklist of the Vascular Flora of Connecticut (Growing Without Cultivation). Report of Investigations No. 8. State Geological and Natural History Survey, Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. Hartford, Connecticut.

Galle, F.C. 1985. Azaleas. Timber Press, Portland, Oregon.

Gleason, H.A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. Second Edition. The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York.

Goodwin, R.H. K. H. Hienig, K. P. Jansson. 1950. Checklist of Woody Plants Growing in the Connecticut Arboretum and Guide to the Arboretum. Bulletin No. 6. Connecticut Arboretum, Connecticut College, New London, Connecticut.

Harvey, M.P. 1994. Inventory of the Native Woody Plant Collection and Stewardship of the Connecticut College Arboretum's Plant Collections and Plant Records. Honors Thesis. Connecticut College. New London, Connecticut.

Jaynes, R.A. 1983. Checklist of Cultivated Laurels, Kalmia spp. American Association of Botanic Gardens and Arboreta Bulletin 17 (4): 99-106.

Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium. 1976. Hortus Third. A Concise Dictionary of Plants Cultivated in the United States and Canada. Macmillan Publishing Company, New York.

Robinson, J.T. 1980. Check List of Woody Plants in the Connecticut Arboretum Collection. Connecticut Arboretum, Connecticut College, New London, Connecticut. Includes 1984 update by G. Dreyer.