Exploring the Arboretum
In the first two weeks of this Inquiry Case, we have explored the Dairy Bush, Brown's Woods and the North Campus Ravine and began to learn about the kinds of trees and shrubs that are present within it. This week, we will delve more deeply into perhaps the best known of the campus natural areas, the Arboretum.
The University of Guelph Arboretum is 165 hectares (408 acres) of both woodlot habitat and managed public gardens. According to the Arboretum website, 38 species of mammals, 188 species of birds, 39 species of butterflies, 18 species of reptiles and amphibians, and 1,700 types of trees and shrubs have been documented there. Moreover, “almost every tree and shrub indigenous to southern Ontario is growing at The Arboretum”.
Cryptic Botany within the Arboretum
There are 100 species of lichens in the Arboretum of which 48 more distinct species were added to this list in the last few years by Troy McMullin who works in Dr Newmaster’s botanical research lab at the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario (BIO). Last year we called on University students to hunt for new lichens. The call was answered and we doubled the existing list of lichens in one year. Many of the lichens that were added to the list are considered rare in southern Ontario, some were new records for the Province of Ontario and one species is new to science! Read the chapter on Lichens in your Woodlot Biodiversity book and go lichen hunting in the Arboretum. See if you can find new records not listed in the list of Arboretum lichens found below. If you think you have found a new record, photograph it and send it to Dr Newmaster
In Unit 4 of this Inquiry Case you met Chris Earley, the Interpretive Biologist and Education Coordinator for University of Guelph Arboretum. He talked to you about the history of the Arboretum and how development around the edges of campus are "hardening" making the habitats within the arboretum more isolated.
Below, Chris will invite you to come and explore the Arboretum as a research student - or simply as an opportunity to get away from your studies and relax.
In the first two weeks of this Inquiry Case, we have explored the Dairy Bush, Brown's Woods and the North Campus Ravine and began to learn about the kinds of trees and shrubs that are present within it. This week, we will delve more deeply into perhaps the best known of the campus natural areas, the Arboretum.
The University of Guelph Arboretum is 165 hectares (408 acres) of both woodlot habitat and managed public gardens. According to the Arboretum website, 38 species of mammals, 188 species of birds, 39 species of butterflies, 18 species of reptiles and amphibians, and 1,700 types of trees and shrubs have been documented there. Moreover, “almost every tree and shrub indigenous to southern Ontario is growing at The Arboretum”.
Cryptic Botany within the Arboretum
There are 100 species of lichens in the Arboretum of which 48 more distinct species were added to this list in the last few years by Troy McMullin who works in Dr Newmaster’s botanical research lab at the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario (BIO). Last year we called on University students to hunt for new lichens. The call was answered and we doubled the existing list of lichens in one year. Many of the lichens that were added to the list are considered rare in southern Ontario, some were new records for the Province of Ontario and one species is new to science! Read the chapter on Lichens in your Woodlot Biodiversity book and go lichen hunting in the Arboretum. See if you can find new records not listed in the list of Arboretum lichens found below. If you think you have found a new record, photograph it and send it to Dr Newmaster
In Unit 4 of this Inquiry Case you met Chris Earley, the Interpretive Biologist and Education Coordinator for University of Guelph Arboretum. He talked to you about the history of the Arboretum and how development around the edges of campus are "hardening" making the habitats within the arboretum more isolated.
Below, Chris will invite you to come and explore the Arboretum as a research student - or simply as an opportunity to get away from your studies and relax.
As Chris said - there are many many species of animal and plant in the Arboretum. You've used the GigaPan's to explore plants, gastropods and insects already, but see if you can find the American toad (Anaxyrus americanus) in the GigaPan below from the Goose Walk woods.