Mount Auburn's Oaks

November 10, 2011

In 2007, Mount Auburn Cemetery was accepted as one of 15 institutions forming a national collection of oaks under the North American Plant Collections Consortium (NAPCC) program.  A join venture by the American Public Garden Association (APGA) and the USDA, this program seeks was the first large multi-institutional collection in the program and our acceptance is a significant endorsement of Mount Auburn’s horticultural legacy. With 26 different species represented by 447 oak trees, some of which pre-date the founding of the Cemetery in 1831 (including the Scarlet Oak in the image above), this collection is indeed worthy of conservation efforts. 

Included in Mount Auburn’s Oak Collection are:

Botanic Name, Common Name (No. Of Plants)
Quercus acutissima, Sawtooth Oak (13 trees)
Quercus alba, White Oak (77 trees)
Quercus bicolor, Swamp White Oak (4)
Quercus cerris,Turkey Oak  (2)
Quercus coccinea, Scarlet Oak (36)
Quercus dentata,  Daimyo Oak (1)
Quercus dentata Pinnatifida’, Daimyo Oak cultivar (1)
Quercus ellipsoidalis, Northern Pin Oak (1)
Quercus haas, Haas Oak (1)
Quercus imbricaria, Shingle Oak (5)
Quercus lyrata, Swamp Post Oak (1)
Quercus macrocarpa, Bur Oak (6)
Quercus mongolica, Mongolian Oak (1)
Quercus montana, Chestnut Oak (5)
Quercus muehlenbergii, Chinquapin Oak (1)
Quercus palustris, Pin Oak (35)
Quercus palustris ‘Sovereign’, Pin Oak cultivar (2)
Quercus phellos, Willow Oak (4)
Quercus robur, English Oak (3)
Quercus rubra, Northern Red Oak (190)
Quercus serrata, Konara Oak (3)
Quercus shumardii, Shumard Oak (2)
Quercus stellata, Post Oak (1)
Quercus variabilis, Chinese Cork Oak (2)
Quercus velutina, Black Oak (49)
Quercus x exacta, Oak hybrid (1)

*This summary of Mount Auburn’s Quercus collection was prepared by Horticultural Curator Dennis Collins and Curatorial Associate/Nursery Manager Karla Erickson for the Mount Auburn Cemetery Plant Collections Analysis (2010).

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