Walking through Centennial Common a few weeks ago, I stumbled into a spiky ball about the size of a plum. Looking around, I saw that the ground was littered with them, and looking up, I realized they were falling out of a tree. These spiky balls were the seed pods of chestnuts! This particular tree is a Chinese Chestnut, I found from looking at a tree identification guide online — the American chestnut tree, once a defining feature of the Northeast, has since become functionally extinct due to a blight fungus, and chestnuts in the U.S. are now all imported.
A quick look around Centennial shows that there are many different kinds of trees, and something I had never noticed: many have a small silver plate at the base of their trunk, denoting the name, family and location of the tree, as well as the year it was planted. This is because Northeastern is a Level II accredited arboretum, with 100 species of trees over 11 acres across campus that are professionally managed. All of the trees that are part of the arboretum can be found in the Northeastern Tree Inventory.
Just in Centennial Common, there are over a dozen different species of trees, ranging from ones common to the Northeast like red maple and crabapple to imported beauties like the golden raintree and Korean evodia. Perhaps the most interesting is the lacebark elm, which is native to eastern Asia and has a wonderfully unique bark pattern.
Next time you’re walking through campus and a tree catches your eye, stop to see if there is a silver plaque at the base to find out what it is. If not, you can always figure it out by identifying its leaves, bark, and fruit. There are plenty of handy guides online, like this one from the Arbor Day Foundation. Happy fall!