From fall color to summer shade, the trees of The University of Alabama campus are part of its noted beauty. For a closer look at campus tree life, graduate student David Phillips has developed an urban forest tree tour for the UA campus map.
“The goal was to create a tour showcasing some of the tree species and notable individual trees we have on campus,” said Phillips, a doctoral student in the department of geography and the environment and the student representative on the Landscape and Grounds Committee. “I spent a few months walking around campus in my free time, taking pictures, and writing brief information on each of the stops.”
Stops on the Tree Tour
Featuring 35 points of interest, the urban forest tree tour begins at Marr’s Spring, a natural fresh water source that once supplied all of campus. “The tour itself is a living work: it will continually improve and change along with our campus,” Phillips said. He intends to continue to update the tree tour as long as he serves on the committee.
Phillips included general species information for each tree on the tour along with any notable details. For example, one of the campus’s stately magnolias is actually a champion tree, designated the largest of its species in the state. Another stop highlights a cluster of magnolia trees that have propagated through layering, in which a low-growing branch extends into the soil, sprouts roots, and then grows into its own individual.
Another champion tree highlighted at stop 32 is a Chinese pistache with an interesting history. This tree was a gift from Britain’s Queen Victoria I in the 1850s and is thought to be one of the oldest living examples of its species.
Phillips admitted to having a favorite tree on campus: a burr oak on the far northeast corner of the Quad. Its tree tour photo shows a tall oak with a gently spreading crown. Under it sit a pair of Adirondack chairs and a cornhole game.
The urban forest tree tour can be accessed as a guided tour on the campus map. You can also see if your favorite leafy campus nook has any points of interest by clicking Urban Forest Tree Tour in the Points of Interest filter on the map.
