Ghost Trees is an augmented reality art show which celebrates the lives of five iconic Arboretum trees. Artist Sonia Ralston has skillfully recreated these beloved trees as 3-D digital models: visitors can scan a QR code at five signs around the Arboretum and see the trees superimposed on the landscape behind them, experiencing these iconic specimens as they once stood.
Click here to download a map of the signs in the landscape.
Read more about the individual trees being highlighted below.
This exhibit will be up in the landscape through early spring of 2025.
Beech: Fagus sylvatica.
14588*A
This tall beech tree was one of many beloved beeches on Beech Path. It succumbed to beech bark disease in 2018, and is now included in this project as a symbol of the challenges that beech trees face from introduced pests and diseases.
The newest threat to beeches in North America is beech leaf disease, spread by a nematode that feeds on the leaves. The disease causes characteristic dark, striped bands in the leaves, easily visible to onlookers. The disease then progresses into the buds and prevents leaf production in the spring, eventually causing the death of the tree.
The Arboretum has been experiencing a decline of its beeches in the last decade due to beech leaf disease as well as beech bark disease, drought, ambrosia beetles, and other stressors. Staff have responded by monitoring trees closely for signs of infection, clonally propagating key specimens, and planting native perennials in the understory to enrich the environment for the remaining beech trees.
Corky: Phellodendron amurense
143*A
For years, it was tradition for groups of schoolchildren to climb up onto this tree’s prominent branches and pose for pictures. In 1995, a group of 22 girls from the Winsor School lined up for their picture and the weight finally proved too much: the limb gave way, and the tree had to be removed shortly after. The Arboretum no longer allows tree climbing, in an effort to prevent the damage or loss of any more beloved trees. But Corky will always have a special place in the hearts of the Arboretum community.
Corky was one of the first trees planted at the Arboretum, just a few years after its founding in 1874. The seed came from the Imperial Botanic Garden in St. Petersburg.
Crabapple: Malus ‘Donald Wyman’
23254*A
The crabapple variety ‘Donald Wyman’ was discovered as a spontaneous seedling on Peters Hill in 1950 and was soon hailed as one of the beautiful crabapples on the Arboretum grounds. The tree was named after Arboretum horticulturist Donald Wyman and propagated widely, and seedlings can now be found at plant nurseries across the country.
Over the years, the original seedling on Peters Hill grew into a full-size tree with showers of fragrant, white flowers. But the tree did not maintain this stately stature: in 2008, it experienced major storm damage, and again in 2018 when Winter Storm Riley caused a major limb to fall. Finally, in 2021, a nor’easter with hurricane-force winds felled most of the tree, leaving just several feet of stump. Yet, miraculously, the stump is still alive, and Arboretum propagators have successfully grafted scions from the remaining tree stock to preserve the tree’s genetics once the stump, too, is gone.
This tree is unusual in the Ghost Trees exhibition because it is still alive and can be found on the Arboretum grounds, but the project recreates the tree as it once stood in its full height and splendor.
Elm: Ulmus americana.
No accession number
This stately elm used to frame South Street Gate and can be seen on hand-drawn maps from the Arboretum’s founding in the 1800s, meaning that it actually predated the Arboretum itself. Despite its tall stature and iconic placement, the tree was never officially accessioned, and was eventually removed between 1956 and 1958.
The tree’s unaccessioned status means that we don’t have detailed records of this elm and don’t know exactly why it was removed, but it’s likely that the tree succumbed to Dutch Elm Disease, like many other elms of that era. Dutch elm disease was originally introduced in North America in the 1920s, when European logs containing the fungus were imported to the United States for furniture making. By the 1940s, this original fungus had been largely replaced by a related but more aggressive relative, and many of the elms that had survived the original epidemic now succumbed to the second wave. This is likely what happened to the Arboretum’s elm.
The disease was especially disastrous for American elms because it was common practice at the time to plant these trees close together, in rows along streets or walkways. The disease spread quickly between the densely planted trees and left large swaths of neighborhoods bare when the trees eventually died.
Winterberry Holly: Ilex verticillata
22879*F
This holly was very commonly photographed and was well-loved especially by the Arboretum’s base of dedicated volunteers. It was among 10 Ilex verticillate that were accessioned in 1950, but planted well before as ‘old border plants’ along carriage ways.
Unfortunately the holly, while beautiful in its own right, was planted almost directly in front of the Arboretum’s signature Metasequoia glyptostroboides, or dawn redwood. The dawn redwood has long been a symbol of the Arboretum and this specimen in particular was (and continues to be) the landscape’s most prominent example. When the holly began to compromise both the view and the health of the dawn redwood in 2008, Arboretum staff made the difficult decision to remove the holly for the sake of the tree behind it.
Sometimes staff need to make difficult decisions such as this, removing healthy shrubs and trees for the sake of other parts of its collection. Fortunately, visitors get another chance to view this beautiful winterberry holly through the Ghost Trees project.
