University of Colorado Heritage Center

Old Main door image

CU Heritage Center

For teachers

Tour reservations

A Campus Tree Walk
The Boulder campus is blessed with many beautiful old trees, some planted by President Joseph A. Sewall as early as 1880. With the help of Mary Rippon, the Sewalls planted cottonwoods, blue spruce, and apple trees, as well as purple lilacs and wild plums. In 1885, Arbor Day was established. Students were asked to bring any kind of tree and plant it on campus. In the 1920s, President George Norlin lamented the fact that all the trees were bare during winter. In order to green things up, Norlin had evergreens and trees with bright berries planted. Thanks to these visionaries, the Boulder campus is a veritable tree museum. Here are some of the trees you might encounter...

Notable Trees of the Norlin Quadrangle: a map and description of the trees.

American Elm

Disease has killed most of the American Elm trees in the U.S.

The trunk of American Elm gives it a shape like a vase.

Many different animals feed on the seeds of this tree.

Colorado Blue Spruce

This Colorado Blue Spruce has a blue-green color.

Its needles are 4-sided, stiff and very sharp.

It is the state tree of Colorado.

Colorado Blue Spruce needles

Colorado Fir

Colorado Fir pinecones

Colorado Fir

Cottonwood

Almost 120 years ago, students pulled trees from the banks of Boulder Creek and replanted them around Old Main. Many of the plants surrounding Old Main today are those very trees.

The presence of this tree usually indicates underground water.

Beavers use its branches and inner bark to build dams and lodges.

Hawthorne

Hawthorne tree

Hawthorne tree leaf and berries

This tree yields small, white fragrant flowers and small apple-like fruit.

Songbirds like to make nests in its branches.

The different species of this tree are so hard to tell apart that some say there are 100 varieties and others say there are 1000!

Horsechestnut

Horsechestnut leaf

The blossoms of this tree are white flecked with red. It produces nuts that are NOT edible.

The seeds were used by Native Americans to poison fish.

Horsechestnut

Kentucky Coffee Tree

This tree is native to eastern and central U.S.

Its doubly compound leaves are sometimes 3 feet long and it produces beans that are 3 to 4 inches long.

The seeds inside the beans are said to have been used for making coffee.

Kentucky Coffee tree seedpod

Norway Maple

These trees are often seen in parks and along streets.

The leaves have fine points.

The leaf stems exude a milky sap.

Ponderosa Pine

Abert squirrels eat only this tree.

This is the most common tree in the mountains around Boulder.

Its long needles are in clusters of three and its cones are egg-shaped.

Ponderosa Pine needles

Red Oak

This tree is deciduous; it loses its leaves in the autumn.

In the early spring its leaves are yellow, in summer green, and in fall bright red.

It produces acorns.

Red Oak leaf

White Ash

One of the most common trees across the U.S. and around Boulder.

The timber of this tree is used for building houses and furniture making.

The leaves are compound, the bark is thick and gray, and the tree can grow to a height of over 100 feet.

White Ash tree leaf

Glossary:

acorn: the nut of the oak.

Arbor Day: a varying date in the spring celebrated by planting trees.

bark: outer layer of tree trunk. compound leaf: more than one leaflet on the same stem.

cone: a dry fruit with wood scales produced by some evergreens.

conifer: a cone-bearing tree.

deciduous: a tree that sheds all its leaves each year.

evergreen: a tree that retains some of its leaves year-round.

genus: name of a tree, for example, oak, maple, ash.

needles: thin longish leaves produced by pine trees.

simple leaf: one main leaf blade on a stem.

species: first name of a tree, for example red oak.

leaf: foliage, outgrowth of a stem.

tree: a perennial that has a single self-supporting trunk and contains woody tissue.

trunk: the main stem of a tree.