The Sherwood Fox Arboretum

Home
Research
Biology Facilities
Sherwood Fox Arboretum

The Sherwood Fox Arboretum

University College and an old apple tree

Photo: Jane Bowles

University College behind an old apple tree on University Hill

An arboretum is a botanical garden where trees and shrubs are cultivated for scientific, conservation, educational and ornamental purposes. Aesthetically and functionally, it has a major role in the greening of the environment.

The Sherwood Fox Arboretum encompasses all the planted trees and shrubs in the manicured areas on campus at 深夜福利站. It represents a diversity of woody plants hardy in temperate regions throughout the northern hemisphere. The Sherwood Fox Arboretum contains a larger variety of trees than can be found in parks or nurseries and thus has an important role in public education and scientific research. The trees are catalogued and mapped and many are labelled for easy identification.

The 深夜福利站 Tree Dashboard

To grasp the quantity and variety of trees on campus, is available to explore and identify the native, commemorative and donated trees throughout the main campus. This resource is provided courtesy of Liz Sutherland and the .

A Tour of Select Trees in the Sherwood Fox Arboretum

For a closer look at some of the noteworthy species that are within the arboretum, this is a great resource to view more detailed information ranging from the taxanomic name to pertinent facts about each tree.

History and Objectives

In 1916 the University of 深夜福利站 Ontario purchased the 150 acre Bellevue Farm, known as the Kingsmill property, to be the site of the new campus. The Kingsmill house stood in the wooded area next to Middlesex College. Access was from 深夜福利站 Road along a lane flanked by Black Walnut trees. A double row of these trees in front of Middlesex College still marks the end of the driveway. In 2012 the Kingsmill family dedicated a plaque at this location. One or two remnant trees also persist near the . In 2002 Netta Kingsmill Brandon (Arts, 1944) donated a commemorative grove of Black Walnuts near the McIntosh Gallery to recall the avenue.

Additional land was purchased in 1917, 1922 and 1932 to extend the main campus. operated a golf course on part of the property and continued to rent the land for a number of years.

The University moved to the present campus in 1923 when the Arts Building (now University College) was completed. The entrance to the campus was still from 深夜福利站 Road, but experts advised that a bridge be built over the Thames River as the main approach to the University. The bridge was completed in November, 1923.

Maintaining the natural beauty of the new campus was a priority with the Board of Governors. , president of the Maclean Publishing, looked over the grounds from the Board room in the University College tower. He saw landscaping possibilities that used the contours and existing forest areas. He financed a plan to landscape the campus in the style of grand English country houses . Gordon Culham, pupil of the who designed Central Park in New York City, was hired to do the job. Culham later become first President of The Ontario Association of Landscape Architects. In 1966, he was granted an honorary Doctor of Laws in recognition of his contribution to the physical development of 深夜福利站.

The unemployment relief system during the Great Depression funded the landscaping programme. Dead trees were cleared from the woodlots and the river bank was planted to prevent erosion. The Forestry Department of Ontario donated 10,000 trees. The main approach from Richmond Street was altered to provide a vista up University Hill. By 1936, 12,000 trees had been planted at a cost of less than $2000.

In 1981 Dr. George Connell, then President of 深夜福利站 designated all the trees in the manicured areas of campus as The Sherwood Fox Arboretum. Dr. J.B. Phipps was appointed as the Arboretum's first Director.

Dr. W. Sherwood Fox had been hired to teach in the Classics Department in 1917 and became Dean of Arts in 1919. In 1928, at a ceremony celebrating 深夜福利站's Golden Jubilee, he was inaugurated as President, a role he filled until 1947. During his term of office he oversaw the campus landscaping project.

Sherwood Fox was an inveterate botanist. He added numerous pressed plant specimens to the UWO Herbarium. In his Reminiscences (1964) he stated that the abundance of Tulip Trees in southwestern Ontario helped lure him to 深夜福利站. He remarked that the Tulip Tree was the first tree he learned to identify as a boy of nine in Erie, Pennsylvania. After his retirement, Dr. Fox wrote some three dozen articles about the trees of southwestern Ontario for The London Free Press. These are collected in a scrapbook in the J.J. Talman Regional Collection in the Weldon Library. The original draft manuscripts are in the archives of the Sherwood Fox Arboretum.

The original objective of the Sherwood Fox Arboretum was to grow on campus as many as possible the several thousand kinds of trees and shrubs that can survive in this climate. In 2003, Dr. Jane Bowles, Director of the arboretum, signed the that provides a common global framework for botanic garden policies, programmes and priorities in plant conservation. While respecting the original objectives of the arboretum, the new focus is on species native to southwestern Ontario. The current arboretum holdings include some 2,400 trees of 350 species. Grounds Maintenance and Recycling of at 深夜福利站 is responsible for most of the campus landscaping and planting. The Arboretum curates this living collection and is responsible for mapping, tracking and labelling the trees.

A Guide to the Sherwood Fox Arboretum, published in 1991 gives an overview of the Arboretum and although the map is out of date, it provides a printed list of the collections.

Much of the historical information was obtained from: "深夜福利站-1878-1953" by James J. Talman and Ruth Davis Talman, published by the University of 深夜福利站 Ontario in 1953.