Glen Arboretum Native Tree Trail
The Glen Arboretum is building its collection of Maryland native tree species to promote education and native biodiversity on TU's campus.
The Maryland Native Trees Collection
The Glen was dedicated in 1936 to provide an educational experience for students in the Baltimore region. Most students and faculty now know the Glen Arboretum to be the 10 acres of woods located at the center of the Towson University campus. One of the efforts of the Glen has been to promote native biodiversity on TU's campus by planting a collection of Maryland native trees. These trees provide habitats for native birds, insects and mammals. Many of these trees also produce fruit or nuts, which benefit these species as well.
For more information about the Glen Arboretum native trees collection, including identification resources, please visit this page on the Towson University Website. You can also view a list of all of the Glen Arboretum trees (PDF) here.
Sassafras (Sassafras albidum)
Sassafras is a deciduous shrub or tree found in the Southeastern and Mid Atlantic states. Its leaves have three distinct shapes: oval, mitten or three lobed. Sassafras roots are a key ingredient in traditional root beer; however it was banned for commercial production by the FDA.
Willow Oak (Quercus phellos)
A tree to 80 feet in height found in bottomlands of the Coastal Plain of Maryland. Unlike most oaks, it has narrow leaves, 2 - 5 inches long, without lobes and a single prickle on the end. Acorns are less than one-half inch long with a shallow cup.
Southern Red Oak (Quercus falcata)
Southern red oak or Spanish oak occurs predominately in the Southeastern US. Its leaves are green above and yellowish below, 3-7 lobed with bristle tips, a slightly S-shaped midvein, and an unequal base. Its acorns are an important animal food source, and its wood is sold as red oak.
American Beech (Fagus grandifolia)
Easily recognized from its smooth, gray bark, this tree grows throughout the Eastern deciduous forest. The leaves have parallel veins ending in coarse teeth along the margin. Its winter buds are long and narrow with a sharp point. Its triangular fruits provide food for many animals including grouse, turkeys, raccoons and squirrels.
Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis)
Shrub or small tree to 25 feet tall with red-brown, scaly bark. Heart shaped, alternate, 6-inch leaves with smooth edges. Showy red or pink flowers in early spring on prior year’s branches develop before leaf expansion. Eastern redbud is widely used as an ornamental and common in uplands of Maryland.
American Sycamore (Platanus occidentalis)
Sycamore, distributed throughout the eastern deciduous forest in lowlands and river floodplains, is a large tree with mottled brown, green and whitish bark. Its large leaves are 3–5 lobed with numerous points along the margin and velvety hairy on the lower surface. Its one-inch round fruits are composites of many flowers.
Arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis)
Arborvitae, also called eastern white cedar, is distributed in northern tier states of Eastern US and in Southern Canada. It is classed as state rare in Maryland. Arborvitae has flat, scale-like leaves. The small cones have few scales. The common name means "tree of life" after is ability to cure scurvy.
Mockernut Hickory (Carya tomentosa)
Mockernut hickory is a long-lived tree widely distributed in the Southeastern US. Its pinnate leaves have 7-9 serrated leaflets. The leaf petiole has hairs distinguishing it from other hickories. The fruit is globose, 1-3 inches in diameter and dispersed in late fall. Its wood is hard and used for tool handles.
Umbrella Magnolia (Magnolia tripetala)
Umbrella tree is a small tree that has a scattered distribution in the Southeastern US. Up to 2 feet in length, its leaves are the largest simple leaf of any deciduous species in Maryland. It has large, white flowers with a disagreeable odor.
White Ash (Fraxinus americana)
White or American ash has opposite, pinnate-compound leaves, typically with 7 leaflets and smooth margins. Widespread in Eastern North America, it is subject to the emerald ash borer that threatens ashes throughout. Its winged seed is dart-like. The wood of ash is used for tool handles and baseball bats.
Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida)
Known for its showy white flowers in the spring, dogwood is a popular landscape tree. Leaves are opposite (two attached to the stem at the same location), are oval, end in a point, and have lateral veins that bend along the smooth margins. Its red fruits in the fall are favorites of migrating birds.
Tulip Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera)
Tulip Poplar, Tuliptree, or yellow poplar, is among the tallest deciduous trees of the Southeastern deciduous forest. It can live for 200 years and reach 6 feet in diameter. Its name comes from the yellow, tulip-like flowers it bears. The leaves are four lobed with pinnate venation and a nearly square cut top.
Black Walnut (Juglans nigra)
Distributed in the central Southeastern US, black walnut is highly valued for its wood used for furniture. Its leaves are compound with up to 23 leaflets with saw-tooth margins. Fruits are balls, 2 inches in diameter, that are prized by squirrels for food. The pith of its stems has hollow chambers.
Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus)
White pine is a common cone-bearing tree in northeastern North America. Five needles in a cluster easily distinguishes it from other eastern pines. The elongated pinecone lacks prickles. It lives 250 years and is the tallest coniferous tree in the eastern US reaching 180 feet. White pine is a valued lumber tree.
Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum)
Found in freshwater swamps throughout Southeastern US, it reaches its northernmost distribution in the Mid Atlantic states. As a cone-bearing tree, it is distinctive in being deciduous. Its needle leaves are alternate. When growing in water, its trunk is flared at the base and produces “knees” up to the high water mark.
Sweet Bay Magnolia (Magnolia virginiana)
Sweet bay magnolia is a semi-deciduous shrub or small tree common to wet soils and stream banks of the coastal plain of Maryland. Its 3 - 6-inch leaves are distinctly bicolored, bright green above and whitish below. Its white flowers are 2-3 inches across and fragrant. Bark is smooth and gray.
American Holly (Ilex opaca)
Found the Southeastern US, holly is one of only a few broadleaf evergreen trees of Maryland. Its leaves are leathery with spiny teeth along the margins. Male and female flowers are on separate plants. Fruits are bright red and persistent through the winter, leading to its use as a holiday decoration.
Red Maple (Acer rubrum)
Red maple is an important understory tree throughout the deciduous forest. Its opposite leaves have saw-toothed edges and typically three lobes. The underside of the leaf is whitish. Its brilliant red color in the fall adds to its usefulness as a landscape tree. It disperses two-winged fruits in late spring.
Northern Red Oak (Quercus rubra)
A common tree up to 100 feet in height, northern red oak is found on upland soils and more commonly in Western Maryland. Leaves are 4 to 8 inches long with 7-10 bristle-tipped lobes. Sinuses are less than one-half distance to midrib. Acorns are one-inch long with a very shallow cap.
Black Oak (Quercus velutina)
Black oak is widespread in uplands throughout the Eastern US. It has 5-7 bristle-tipped lobes with deep sinuses and is shiny green above and yellowish below. Fall buds are 5-sided and covered with gray or brown hairs. The acorn cap covers one-half of the nut. Its acorns are an important food source for animals.
White Oak (Quercus alba)
White oak has lobed leaves without bristles at the tips, tapering at the base and is whitish beneath. It is the state tree of Maryland and found throughout the eastern deciduous forest. Its wood provides furnishings, floors and wine barrels. Its acorns are a valued food for squirrels, deer and turkeys.
Pin Oak (Quercus palustris)
Pin oak typically has five bristle-tipped lobes with sinuses nearly to the midrib. Its canopy with ascending upper branches, horizontal mid branches and drooping lower branches is a distinctive characteristic. Found on alluvial flats from the Mid Atlantic to central US, it is a widely planted landscape tree.
American Basswood (Tilia americana)
Distributed in Northeastern US, basswood prefers moist, upland sites and is frequently a landscape tree. Its leaves have saw-toothed margins, long-pointed tips, and asymmetrical bases. Its flowers are borne in clusters supported by a leafy bract, and pollinating bees produce a spicy honey from the flowers.
Box Elder (Acer negundo)
This maple species has opposite, pinnate leaves with 3-5 leaflets that may have small lobes and may resemble poison ivy and American ash, but its twigs are green. Boxelder has the widest distribution of trees in North America. It disperses its two-winged fruit in the fall or winter.
Black Locust (Robinia pseudocacia)
Found throughout continental US today and considered invasive, the original distribution of black locust is controversial. Its leaves are pinnately compound with 9-19 oval leaflets. Paired spines are at the base of some leaves. Its fragrant, pea-like flowers are a source of honey. Fruits are dry legumes. Its wood is rot-resistant and very hard.
Black Cherry (Prunus serotina)
Black cherry is a medium size tree found throughout the Eastern US and scattered elsewhere. Its leaves have fine saw-toothed edges, reddish hairs along the midvein, and glands at the base. The dark cherries provide food for wildlife, but the foliage contains poisonous cyanogens. The wood is prized for cabinet making.
American Elm (Ulmus americana)
American elm was extirpated by Dutch elm disease and is now represented by resistant cultivars. It was found throughout the Eastern US. Its leaf margins have saw-teeth of two sizes, asymmetrical bases, and are smooth on the upper surface. Fruits are surrounded by a membranous wing that has small hairs on its margin.
Northern Catalpa (Catalapa speciosa
This large-leafed tree, prized for its large, showy white flowers with purple and yellow spots, was originally distributed along the Mississippi River but today can be found throughout the Southeastern US. The leaves of northern catalpa are heart-shaped and hairy. Its fruit, produced in the fall, is long and bean-shaped.
Chestnut Oak (Quercus montana)
The scallop-margined leaves of chestnut oak are waxy on the underside. The tree is common to uplands and ridges in the SE United States. The bark is deeply grooved with V-shaped ridges. The glossy brown acorns are consumed by deer, squirrels, turkeys and woodpeckers. The wood is used for furniture.
American hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana)
Small tree up to 50 feet tall with bluish-gray bark and ribbed stems. Wood is very hard and used for tool handles and golf clubs. Leaves are simple, alternate, with two sizes of teeth, and 1 – 5 inches long. Female flowers are inconspicuous and leaf-like. American hornbeam is found throughout Maryland in rich understory forests.
Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua)
Sweetgum, or red gum, is common to the Maryland Coastal Plain and the SE and Mid Atlantic regions. Distinctive are its 5-7 star-shaped lobed, palmately-veined leaves with saw-tooth edges. A common landscape tree because of its fall color, it has spikey, 1.5-inch round fruits.
Slippery Elm
Slippery elm (elm family, Ulmaceae) is a common North American tree with slick, sticky, deeply furrowed bark that enjoys full sun to partial shade. Its reddish heartwood and buds have given its alternative name of red elm. Slippery elms quickly mature to be up to 80 feet tall with wide branches and hairy twigs bearing flowers and fruit seasonally. Leaves are placed alternately along twigs with petioles typically being ½ inch long. The leaves of the slippery elm are simple, rough on the upper surface, pinnately veined, and grow to be 4-7 inches long. They have doubly serrated margins (two sizes of teeth), unequal bases and a long–tapered tip. The roughness of the leaves can be helpful in distinguishing the slippery elm from its close relative, the American elm, that bears shiny, smooth leaves. The slippery elm’s greenish-red flowers, absent of petals, hang from long pedicels and typically appear in mid-march. There are male flowers with stamens and female flowers with pistils that are wind pollinated. The flowers form into rounded fruits called samaras with papery tissue around the center, where the seed is located. The papery wing has no hairs on the margin, which distinguishes it from American elm. This papery tissue helps the wind carry the seed away once it has matured in mid to late spring. Slippery elm tree seeds can germinate in a variety of conditions and form into seedlings about 2-3 months after becoming established5. Although the slippery elm is considered fast growing, the production of seeds doesn’t start until it is about 15 years old and full maturity isn’t reached until about 40 years old. Slippery elms can live to be 200 years old in favorable conditions.