Hoyt Arboretum

Hoyt Arboretum
Weeping Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum 'Pendulum') in Hoyt Arboretum
Type	Arboretum
Location	Portland, Oregon, United States
Coordinates	45°31′00″N 122°42′58″W / 45.51679°N 122.71600°W / 45.51679; -122.71600Coordinates: 45°31′00″N 122°42′58″W / 45.51679°N 122.71600°W / 45.51679; -122.71600
Size	187-acre (76 ha)
Opened	1922
Status	Open to the public
Website	hoytarboretum.org

Mature Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) in winter

The Hoyt Arboretum is located atop a ridge in the west hills of Portland, Oregon, United States. It was founded in 1922^[1] by a collection of timber industry representatives, the U.S. Forest Service, the Portland Parks & Recreation department, and enthusiasts.

The 187-acre (0.76 km²)^[2] (76 ha) arboretum hosts just under ten thousand individual trees and shrubs of more than eleven hundred species from all over the world. Most have labels identifying common and scientific names and region of origin.

The arboretum has twelve miles (19 km) of trails (two of which are suitable for wheelchairs), a visitor center, an indoor classroom with seating for 40 people, a picnic shelter and a meadow. Volunteer tour guides have been available since the 1970s.

The arboretum is located two miles (3 km) west of downtown Portland within Washington Park, and close to the Oregon Zoo, and the International Rose Test Garden. The Arboretum is open to the public and accessible at several points from Washington Park or from the Macleay Trail in Forest Park. The volunteer-staffed visitor's center is located at the center of the park where visitors can find information about the park and its trees; the visitor's center is also the starting point for periodic volunteer-guided tours.

Of note is the Dawn Redwood, one of only a few known deciduous conifers (needle and cone bearing trees that lose their leaves in the winter). The species was once thought extinct and known only in fossils, but was rediscovered in a remote valley in China in the early part of the twentieth century. The tree was reintroduced to the western hemisphere through saplings planted in the Hoyt Arboretum. The trees bear soft, short needles and have a distinctive look in that the branches seem to push out from folds in the trunk.

Cynthia Haruyama is the current executive director of the Hoyt Arboretum Friends Group. She has been the director since 2001.

See also

• List of botanical gardens in the United States

References

1. ^ Portland Parks and Recreation - Hoyt Arboretum
2. ^ "Hoyt Arboretum Official Site". http://www.hoytarboretum.org/. Retrieved 2011-1-23. 

External links

• Official Website

Magnolia liliiflora 'O'Neill' at Hoyt Arboretum, 2011.