Oaks are one of the most recognizable trees in New England, and one of the most ecologically important. Join Horticulturist Ryan Devlin for a Tree Mob on the Arboretum's oak collection on Peters Hill and get a closer look at this common but fascinating genus. Learn about oak reproduction, different oak species, mast years, and more through this short landscape talk.
Online or at Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
Join editor Susan Barba for a mobile landscape reading of her new literary anthology, filled with classic and contemporary poems and essays inspired by wildflowers. What is a mobile landscape reading, you ask? Instead of sitting in a lecture hall, you will meander through the wildflowers of the Arboretum, stopping to hear beautiful poems and prose while surrounded by the wildflowers that inspired them.
Hunnewell Visitor Center, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
Frederick Law Olmsted designed the Arnold Arboretum and played an important role in its genesis as a public park. Join docent Bill Beizer for a tour identifying the elements of the Arboretum that best reflect Olmsted's philosophy and design approach.
Join a docent tour through the Arboretum looking for the vibrant colors of the witch-hazel flowers. Learn about plants native to China and Japan, those from the Ozarks and Mississippi, and even one that was introduced right here at the Arnold Arboretum! Dress warmly and wear boots for a 75-minute tour on and off the paths.
Bring your Valentine on a docent -led tour through the Arboretum looking for the vibrant colors of the witch-hazel flowers. Learn about plants native to China and Japan, those from the Ozarks and Mississippi, and even one that was introduced right here at the Arnold Arboretum! Dress warmly and wear boots for a 75-minute tour on and off the paths.
In the Arnold Arboretum, there is something blooming every month of the year—including February! Join Andrew Gapinski, Director of Horticulture, to explore the beauty of the Arboretum’s witch-hazel family collection and its captivating history of development, evaluation, and scientific study here at the Arboretum.
What is there to see at the Arboretum after all of the leaves have fallen and before spring flowers start to bloom? Bark! Shaggy bark, mottled bark, striped bark: the Arboretum has it all. Join Horticulturist Rachel Lawlor to see some beautiful bark highlights, learn how to identify some trees by their bark alone, and learn why exactly that bark looks the way it does.
This tour will involve walking over grassy slopes, paved roads, mulch paths, and quite possibly some snow. We will be outside the whole time so dress for the weather! The tour begins on Bussey Street near the...
Online or at Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston
It looks like a cherry tree, it smells like root beer, but it is, in fact, the beautiful and aromatic sweet birch. Join Horticulturist Brendan Keegan to learn about this fascinating tree and its role in ecological succession, its use by wildlife, and its importance to indigenous communities. You may even get a chance to smell the wintergreen scent yourself.
Getting to this Tree Mob will involve walking up a moderately sloped gravel path.
This event will also be presented virtually over Zoom. To sign up for the virtual event,...
Join Dr. Faye Rosin, Director of Research Facilitation, for a tour of the Weld Hill Research Labs. The Weld Hill Research and Education Building is a state-of-the-art science laboratory and teaching facility that opened in 2011. On any given day researchers, faculty, and students use its laboratories, greenhouses, growth chambers, and classrooms to further the study of plant life on Earth.
Hundreds of mushrooms hide beneath the Arboretum's canopies, silently blossoming into unique forms then withering away again just as quickly. Join local mushroom enthusiast Maria Pinto to search for these fascinating organisms on the Arboretum grounds, both edible and poisonous alike. Along the way you will learn what mushrooms to look for in different habitats and seasons, how they move through ecosystems, and how the Arboretum's unique collections affect what mushrooms you might find here.
Hemlock Hill Summit Road, Arnold Arboretum, Boston
The Curatorial Staff have the Herculean task of mapping, labelling, and assessing all of the plants in the Arboretum. Join Kyle Port, Manager of Plant Records, to learn how this plant inventory work is being tackled on Hemlock Hill.
Maple Collection on Meadow Road & Crabapple Collection on Peters Hill, Arnold Arboretum, Boston
Celebrate fall color at the Arboretum! Join the festivities for children’s activities, learn about the Crabapple and Maple Collections from staff and volunteers, and view our plants up close with our microscope station. Registration not required, but greatly appreciated.
Lilacs come in a wide range of color, size, flower form, and leaf. Arnold Arboretum docent Chris McArdle will take you on a free, virtual tour of many of these varieties, by way of images from the actual plants in our landscape. From her long years of experience in the lilac collection, and as a docent, she will introduce you to many fascinating histories, anecdotes, as well as the people instrumental in bringing us these much-anticipated May bloomers. From their 17th century beginning in North America, up to some fabulous present-day cultivars, you will experience the breadth of our...
Visitors to the Harvard Museum of Natural History are dazzled by the Mineral Gallery’s beautiful specimens, yet the gallery displays only a fraction of the entire collection.
While each of the collection’s 300,000+ specimens has great scientific value, a subset also has significant commercial value. Join Curator Raquel Alonso-Perez for a virtual behind the-scenes visit to view specimens that, for security reasons, are not typically on display. You’ll see a rare opal in matrix from Mexico, tourmalines from the first pegmatitic discovery in the U.S., and crystalline gold, among...
At the time of its founding in 1872, the land on which the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University is sighted was a patchwork of farmland and forest. As the Arboretum was planted, pathways were developed to lead people through the picturesque landscape. As the landscape developed, economies shifted, wars took place, and directors changed. Each of these factors subtly influenced shifts in the park’s path system. Join the Arnold Arboretum on Zoom with Jared Rubinstein as he reveals the layers of change in this beloved landscape.
What better place to look for the differences between angiosperms (plants that flower and have enclosed seeds), and gymnosperms (plants with "naked seeds," including conifers, ginkgos, and others), than in the Arnold Arboretum landscape, where over 15,000 plants reside in a living museum. Join our guide as she points out trees in both groups and describes the characteristics of each.