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Chadwick Arboretum & Learning Gardens

College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences

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Colour Columbus 1,000 Native Tree Collection

 

1000 Native Trees map

The Colour Columbus 1,000 Native Tree Collection was installed in segments, over time with the ultimate goal of 1,000 trees. Many trees, mostly native species, were planted by volunteers from The Ohio State University, Chadwick Arboretum & Learning Gardens, and the central Ohio community on Saturdays in March and April of 1997 and 1998. The 1,000 Trees Project is part of a larger installation of 11 million trees that were being planted in communities throughout the state – one for each Ohio citizen – in anticipation of Ohio's Bicentennial in 2008. 


       

On Arbor Day, April 19, 1998, the Ohio State University Chadwick Arboretum celebrated the progress of our Native Tree Collection installation. The trees for this project were donated by Jack and Cherie Lucks, among others. On Arbor Day in 2008, the Native Tree Collection was renamed the Colour Columbus Native Tree Collection to honor Cherie Lucks for her support. Cherie was the past president of Colour Columbus, a nonprofit corporation that promoted excellence in landscaping in the urban setting.

Physiographic Regions of Ohio

This unique collection of 1,000 trees, native to the state of Ohio, is divided into the five physiographic regions of Ohio:

  1. In the Lake Plains environment of the northwest, one will find the area largely populated with oaks.
  2. The state’s historic glacial activity of the Glaciated Appalachian Plateau, with its small sand hills along the Lake Erie coastline, creates a unique growing environment. It boasts Ohio buckeye, ash, beech, black walnut, hickory, and maple.
  3. While hiking through the Till Plains of western Ohio, you can find a number of beech and maple trees.
  4. Visitors can wander through the Unglaciated Appalachian Plateau of Eastern Ohio and see the chestnuts, hemlocks, and pines that fill this woodland country. 
  5. In the Bluegrass Region visitors find an array of grasses and native prairie plants. Our Prairie Plant Collection and Monarch Butterfly Waystation provides our visitors a great distraction from the hustle and bustle of nearby city life and provides a natural habitat for a variety of wildlife.
Benefits of the Collection
  • Provides a diversified outdoor classroom for students in disciplines including horticulture, natural resources, landscape architecture, plant biology, and plant pathology
  • Displays the wide variety of native trees available to the home gardener
  • Shows the impact of 1,000 trees
  • Helps secure this site as a planned green space on our campus where a composting and construction waste holding site once stood
  • Provides a respite for future generations to enjoy

Discover the visual appeal of Ohio’s ecological diversity as you tour the Chadwick Arboretum North Colour Columbus 1,000 Native Tree Collection.

A few trees of note in this 1,000 tree collection are listed below.  Click on the tree name below to view a photograph and one or more links to information about these trees from The Ohio State University Plant Facts, Wikipedia, and/or USDA Plants Database. Or, click Plant Search Database and simply enter the botanical name (genus only will work) of any tree on The Ohio State University Columbus campus.