A Walk Among the Trees
Professor of Biology Scott Shumway takes the classroom outdoors so students can explore Wheaton's living laboratory.
By Anna Fitzgerald '93, Photos by Scott Shumway and Dan Foxman '02
When asked about his favorite Wheaton tree, Professor of Biology Scott Shumway names one, and then another and another.
"Well, there is the majestic pin oak in front of Cragin, one of the straightest-growing trees you will ever see," he begins. "Also the Korean Stewartia by the side entrance to Mary Lyon Hall--its exfoliating bark is beautiful in any season. And definitely the American beech growing wild in Wheaton Woods. But next week I might have a different list!"
Students in Shumway's "Plant Biology" class catch his enthusiasm for Wheaton's varied landscape from the very first lab session, when he leads them through campus and woods in search of some of Wheaton's most significant tree specimens. "Our vast collection of trees is an incredibly valuable, hands-on teaching tool for my botany classes," Shumway says. "Many students have no idea of the size and variety of our collection until they begin studying them in class. And then every walk around campus is a learning experience." While few students have prior expertise in tree identification, they quickly learn to spot Wheaton's tulip trees and Douglas firs, and to tell the dawn redwoods from the atlas cedars.
A coastal plant ecologist and avid birder, Shumway's fascination with trees took root while observing wild specimens in the field. Captivated by the sheer beauty and majesty of trees, he went on pilgrimages to arboreta such as the National Arboretum in D.C., Arnold Arboretum and Cambridge's Mount Auburn Cemetery to teach himself the finer points of tree identification.
"The more I learned about trees, the more I said to myself, 'Hey, we've got that, we've got that,'" Shumway says. "It gave me an even greater appreciation of the extraordinary collection of trees we have here, from the newly planted dove tree to the ancient American elms."
His growing interest in Wheaton's trees resulted in three successful applications for faculty/student Wheaton Research Partnerships for what Shumway calls the Wheaton Arboretum Project. "It's part research, part teaching and part hobby for me," Shumway says. "I want to provide public education to visitors while increasing botanical awareness among the Wheaton community."
Shumway and student researchers, including "Plant Biology" student Shelley Edmundson '03, set to work conducting an inventory of campus trees, verifying decades of handwritten records kept by Wheaton tree guru Holcombe Austin and entering them into a computer database. After the inventory was completed, Shumway and his team worked to create display labels for trees noting their common, scientific and family names.
"We have so many interesting and unusual trees, and while we have class year plaques on many of them, people often wonder what kind of trees they are," Shumway says. "Now visitors can read the kind of tree it is, while reading about its significance to the Wheaton community."
Shumway chose the same permanent anodized aluminum labels used by Harvard's Arnold Arboretum and many botanic gardens around the world. To date, he, Edmundson and Dan Foxman '02 have hung 30 labels, and hope to complete approximately twice that amount this year.
"I love working outside and learning more about plants and trees," says Edmundson, a biology major with a strong background in botany. "And people are noticing our work. I have friends that say to me, 'Oh, the Gingko biloba, I see that tag every day.' Knowing that people are noticing the labels, and learning from them makes this project even more significant."
Future plans for the arboretum project include labeling some of the wild specimens in the Wheaton Woods, a rich source of variety, but Shumway wouldn't mind having a few new ornamental cultivars to label. "I'd like to see us plant a Franklinia, a beautiful white-flowered tree named for Benjamin Franklin. It was last seen in the wild in 1790," he says. He'd also like to see the jade green star-shaped leaves of the sweet gum tree, "partly because of its beautiful Latin name Liquidamber," and a bald cypress, because "it would grow nicely at the shore of Peacock Pond and would someday send up 'cypress knees.'"
But among Wheaton's unique and marvelous tree specimens, it is the once common American elm that may be most remarkable. While hundreds of Elm Streets in America have lost their stately namesakes through the devastation of Dutch Elm Disease, Wheaton has a remarkable population of long-lived, healthy elms, each given special care to see that they remain disease-free. One of the oldest elms, known as the Squire Wheaton elm, graces the backyard of the Presidents' House, purported to be planted by Judge Wheaton himself.
Wheaton's vision for the future includes a new generation of elms, the liberty elm, bred for their resistance to disease. The graceful branches of these young elms lining the Dimple mimic the broad spread of the older American elms that they will one day replace.
Virtual tree walk
Professor Scott Shumway and Dan Foxman '02 created a virtual tree walk for Wheaton's Web site, echoing the Wheaton tradition held during Homecoming and Reunion weekends. Click here to walk virtually among the campus trees.
George Washington's horse ... and other Wheaton tree tales
Holcombe Austin enjoyed relating a piece of folklore about the venerable sugar maple at the southeast corner of Mary Lyon Hall. Click here to read about it, along with other Wheaton tree lore.
Anna Fitzgerald '93 is Wheaton's senior associate director of Communications. One of her favorite Wheaton trees is Sciadopitys verticillata, the Japanese Umbrella Pine.
