Collection

Old Growth & Natural Areas

Lan­dis Arbore­tum is one of three arbore­ta in east­ern North Amer­i­ca that have old growth forests. The oth­er two are the New York Botan­i­cal Gar­den and Rut­gers Uni­ver­si­ty. Among its two Old Growth Forests stand a wide­ly diverse range of species that com­prise the old growth forests. The dom­i­nant trees are white and red oaks, Amer­i­can beech, sug­ar maple, hem­lock, yel­low birch, and black birch. 

The old growth forests are acces­si­ble to vis­i­tors by walk­ing the Great Oak/​Woodland Trail, start­ing in the cor­ner of the field behind the Arboretum’s green­house to the Great Oak area. The route, approx­i­mate­ly three miles round trip from the park­ing lot to the larg­er Old Growth For­est area and back, is clear­ly marked for vis­i­tors to the Arboretum. 

The nat­ur­al areas of the Arbore­tum pro­vide a won­der­ful oppor­tu­ni­ty to enjoy and study native plants and ecosys­tems, open field evo­lu­tion, effect of unde­sired inva­sive species, endan­gered plants, and for­est com­mu­ni­ties of the region. These areas are vital to the Arbore­tum as a study area for ecosys­tems of the North­east. The var­i­ous stages of suc­ces­sion and var­i­ous ecosys­tems that exist on the prop­er­ty are sig­nif­i­cant in that a wide range of envi­ron­ments can be stud­ied or researched at one site. Trails wind through mature and near mature forests and wild­flower fields. 

The exten­sive nat­ur­al areas at Lan­dis is also makes it an out­stand­ing loca­tion for wildlife view­ing. This prop­er­ty is con­sid­ered excel­lent for bird watch­ing. Bird walks are offered occa­sion­al­ly as part of our Cal­en­dar of Events.