Recommended Urban Trees: A Cornell Campus Walk - Horticulture ...

designed to look like an extension of the
native vegetation of Cascadilla Gorge.
As it turns out, the garden includes
many recommended urban trees.
The three small trees near the entrance
with shredding bark in long, rectangular
strips are American hophornbeam
(Ostrya virginiana). Native to eastern
North America, it often grows in the
woodland understory and thus is
tolerant of some shade. Hophornbeam
tolerates some urban stresses but cannot
withstand the most difficult sites;
it is especially sensitive to salt.
Use hophornbeam in moderately
challenging situations such as
urban parks and greenways. It will
reward you with stress tolerance
and interesting bark, leaves, and
fruits.
Young dawn redwoods
(Metasequoia glyptostroboides) are
unmistakably and consistently
cone-shaped. Look for one here,
intermingled with the shorter
hophornbeams — it has feathery,
flattened, needlelike leaves. If
dawn redwood strikes you as
primitive-looking, it should. Dawn
redwood has been around for more than 50
million years. It’s known as a “living fossil” since fossil evidence of it was
discovered before the first trees were sighted. Since its discovery in China in
the 1940s, it has been widely propagated. Given its longevity as a species it is
21
(33) Ostrya virginiana,
American Hophornbeam
(33) Metasequoia glyptostroboides,
Dawn Redwood