Other notable plantings
Dolgo crabapple on G.935 rootstock
Lining Collier Drive and West Lawn. Grafted in Gennaro Fazio’s program using a dwarfing rootstock he bred. It confers fire-blight resistance as well. The crab apples are scab resistant. Apple scab resistance has been a focus of Geneva breeding programs since the early 1900s. A previous planting of crabapples at this site was defoliated by scab each summer, demonstrating the importance of resistance.
Long thought extinct by botanists, dawn redwood trees were discovered in western Hubei provinces in 1942. The species was published in 1948 to great fanfare. The same year the Arnold Arboretum helped fund a trip to bring seeds to the US. The seedlings from those seeds varied greatly in form, with the pyramidal shape “National” (in the National Arboretum in Washington DC) being the most popular. Our tree is about the same age, so perhaps its seed came from this specimen!
Prof. Nina Bassuk developed hybrid oaks with great horticultual value and tolerance to urban conditions. Some of the first specimens are on the AgriTech campus, two on the west lawn, and one by the Station house on Castle Street.
We have two stunning beeches on campus, a cutleaf beech between Sturtevant and IPM, and a puple-leaf beech west of Parrot Hall
Liquidambar is a southern native that has thrived in horticulture throughout the US. We have two that honor horticulturists who thrived at Cornell AgriTech.
A set of Malus differential indicator hosts is planted to monitor apple scab isolates in the area. This set was planted by Plant Path Prof. Herb Aldwinckle and Herb Gustafson in 1985 near Castle Creek on Innovation Drive
Two large trees shade the gathering area on the Hedrick lawn. Most people refer to them as the sycamores, but they are in fact London Plane Trees. This species has a good horticultural history.