Welcome to the Seth Boyden Children’s Arboretum Welcome to the Seth Boyden open to visitors school days: 4pm to sunset Children’s Arboretum weekends: sunrise to sunset Set on the grounds of seth boyden elementary school, our Go to the Seth Boyden Arboretum website to find links for arboretum is home to more than 120 trees, from Apples to Zelkovas, scavenger hunt worksheets and other resources: each one labeled with its species and fun facts. www.sethbodyen.com/arboretum Guided by on-site maps, visitors can follow a meandering trail The arboretum was developed in 2016 to 2018 by the Outdoor that starts in our native species garden and winds past the plantings Learning Committee of the Seth Boyden PTA. The content of throughout the property. Twelve “story” stations on the trail offer the Story Trails Stations and the Tree markers was developed by placards with information and questions that encourage children Tia Swanson, Abby Sher and Matthias Ebinger. Sarah Gifford to think about nature in new ways. designed the story trail signage and the cover to this binder. Vegetables in our produce garden, a giant sundial, and, in the Our special thanks go to our generous supporters: summertime, a working water mister are among the discoveries that await. Kids can engage in imaginative play in our woodland − Sustainable New Jersey − The Ebinger Family habitat, with stump “seats” facing a wood-built “throne,” or they − Maplewood Township − The Emmons Family can climb on our three playground structures and run around on − Glenn’s Landscaping, Maplewood − The Fisher Family our wide-open green space. Adults can enjoy relaxing at tables or on − South Orange Township − The Goring Family wooden benches. − Lowe’s Tool Box Grant − The Hanger Family − HelloVanguard.com, Maplewood − The Holtz Family This binder contains all the materials for our Arboretum: it starts and − Rails Company, Maplewood − The Kern-Benigno Family ends with the trail head signs, that are located in the front and − The Graduating Class of 2015 − The Kraft Family back of the school yard. It contains all the tree markers that are − Google − The Riekenberg Family placed next to the trees as engraved concrete blocks. It also contains − Rutgers Master Gardener Program − The Spanier Family the trail marker placards, the colorful pages that hang from − The Anstatt Family − Walter Robert Stuetzel each of the 12 nature story trail stations. − The Buchanan/Miller Family − The Swanson Family We are also grateful to arborist Todd Lamm, landscape architect William Scerbo and historian Susan Newberry for their input and advice. discover explore imagine WHAT IS A HABITAT GARDEN? 1 Can you find all 8 marker stones with the 1 Imagine you are a bird looking for a home. This is a habitat garden—designed as a goldfinch on it? Write about what you want for yourself and home for birds, animals, insects and (Hint: some are located outside the your family. now—you! A healthy habitat has lots of habitat garden) 2 Find 3 different berries that you might different plants so there is food and shelter 2 Name 3 different kinds of trees that are eat if you were a bird. (Don’t eat them! for all kinds of living things. in this habitat. You’re not a bird!) Write as if you’re bringing predators The goldfinch is the New Jersey state 3 Name 3 different animals that might these berries home. Which bird. Every time you discover it on a sign that live here. could you encounter? means the plant next to it is an important 3 chipmunk 4 How does the holly tree help birds Imagine you’re a . What would part of a wholesome NJ Habitat. survive? be your favorite place in the garden and why? What about if you’re a caterpillar? 5 How can you tell a pin oak by its leaves? A butterfly? Where would you sleep or find water? Goldfinch Sheet 2 River Birch Kousa dogwood Holly BETULA NIGRA CLUMPS CORNUS KOUSA ILEX x NELLIE R. STEVENS Found on the banks The reason Dogwood of Streams and Rivers. Holly berries blooms last so long Is are beautiful Birch Bark looks like that the colored peeling Paper. but Poisonous portion is not a to humans. Birch wood is strong but flower petal light, making it ideal for toys Birds love to eat the and artificial limbs. but a “bract” - berries, but only after Native Americans used it to treat a modified colds and stomach problems. leaf. they have been softened by several frosts. “…look for the way things will turn out spiraling From the Hanger Family: from a center…” – Sponsored by the Holtz family 1 Charlie, Becky, Sam, Martin 2 3 White Oak QUERCUS ALBA CRAB APPLE Pin Oak a symbol of American MALUS CARDINAL QUERCUS PALUSTRIS independence: Crab apples Wood from oak trees was used THE BRITISH KING HAD (or Wild Apples) are To build sailing ALLOWED CONNECTICUT TO the ancestors and cousins ships. It took 200 MAKE ITS OWN RULES. WHEN of grocery store apples. oak trees to make a ship that HE WANTED TO TAKE THIS RIGHT could navigate an ocean. AWAY, THE CHARTER DOCUMENT Crab apples are Smaller WAS HIDDEN IN A HOLLOW WHITE Than Cultivated Apples. Next time you’re in Maplecrest OAK AND WAS SAVED. Park, find the old native Pin They are sour and make Oaks there. good cider. Birds and small STATE TREE OF ILLINOIS, For David Swanson, 1929-2014, CONNECTICUT AND MARYLAND 4 mammals love Them. 5 beloved father, nature lover and tree farmer 6 Sheet 3 Pin Oak Holly CRAB APPLE QUERCUS PALUSTRIS ILEX x NELLIE R. STEVENS MALUS Lobes are the hollies have Apple wood bits of the Oak leaf Shiny, spiky is valuable that extend out to each Leaves that stay side from the center of the firewood. it leaf, like pointsIlex x 'Nellie R. Stevens' on a star. on the tree even burns hot and during the winter. Pin Oaks, Scarlet Oaks slow, without AND Red Oaks have pointed Most Hollies grow green much flame, Gives off a lobes, while White OAKS have berries in spring and pleasant scent and rounded lobes. summer that turn red in imparts an excellent In Memory of Mimi Fisher, 1929 - 2015 fall and winter. flavor to smoked foods. A Brooklyn girl who traveled the world 7 8 9 Holly Holly Holly ILEX x NELLIE R. STEVENS ILEX x NELLIE R. STEVENS ILEX x NELLIE R. STEVENS Hollies make Hollies make Excellent Excellent Landscape Hiding places Hiding places Architects like For birds and For birds and to plant Hollies Small mammals. Small mammals. in a Row To create a screen that is green and The leaves provide The leaves provide dense all year round. protection from protection from Hollies are hardy and predators and storms, predators and storms, tolerate pollution. especially in winter. especially in winter. 10 10 11 Sheet 4 Pink Pink Wild black cherry Dogwood Dogwood PRUNUS SEROTINA CORNUS RUBRA CORNUS RUBRA The Black Cherry Dogwood tree branches were Has toothed, In 2012, the United States sent oval leaves. 3,000 dogwood saplings to used by Native Americans and Japan to commemorate the 100 Pioneers as toothbrushes. year anniversary of the Once chewed for a few Wildlife love It. Washington D.C. cherry trees, minutes, the tough fibers at birds feed on given as a gift to the U.S. by the ends of the twigs split Its Fruit, Japan in 1912. into a fine brush. caterpillars In Memory of Dr. Leonard Fisher, 1929 – 2011 . Sponsored by Sofia Kern-Benigno (class of 2018) feast on its foliage. A local boy who done good. 12 and Silas Kern-Benigno (class of 2021) 13 14 Pin Oak Small, but important White Pine PINUS STROBUS QUERCUS PALUSTRIS Many of the old homes in “No tree has been Take a look at the small Town are built from White more useful to plants in the habitat Pine timber. human beings garden. They provide than the oak…” William Bryant Logan food and hiding places the earliest vessels, tubs for animals throughout the year. AND casks were made from Try to find some of these plants: oak. Vikings used oak for Little bluestem, Wild their ships. Leonardo da Elevation of Vinci drew with oak ink. grasses, Juniper, Dill, Main Entrance Section Fennel, Parsley In honor of Karl Ebinger and his lifelong love In fond Memory of our Avid Gardener, Uncle Nick for nature and teaching. 15 16 -The AnstattClan 17 Sheet 5 discover explore imagine THE WILD WOODLAND HABITAT 1 The 3 bushes planted at the edge of 1 Imagine you are a native american The fenced-in area to the right is called the yard toward Jacoby Street are indian, living in these woods hundreds a woodland habitat because it arrowwood viburnums. of years ago. What would you use to build contains plants found at the edge of a forest. Can you find the older Arrowwoods in your house and how would you build it? Birds love these bushes because they another part of this Habitat Garden? Would you build in sun or shade? Why? offer protection from predators and 2 Which bushes are evergreens and 2 Choose your favorite plant in either harsh weather; some also provide food. why is that important for the animals of the habitat gardens and explain why After planting these bushes who live here? you like it so much. in 2017 we fenced the 3 Which other animals live here 3 If you plant one tree a year for 50 years, area off and left it alone besides birds? (Hint: Look near fallen when they are all grown they will provide to see what nature will branches and tree stumps.) enough oxygen for 100 people! How can do on its own.