DAWG DAZE Tree Tour

1) Western Redcedar:

On a lawn dominated by huge trees, this Western Redcedar stands out with bright orange bark and beautiful braided leaves. This tree is a marker for the HUB Lawn. This area is an excellent gathering place for Huskies, with concerts, open grassy space for lawn sports and lounging, and nearby restaurants in the Husky Union Building. Western Redcedar is one of the most culturally significant trees in the entire region for the various Indigenous nations of the Salish Sea. 

2) Northern Red Oak

The Grieg Garden is a hidden gem of campus. A small grassy area with flowering Rhododendron and numerous quiet benches sits beneath a stand of massive Northern Red Oaks. In fall, these 120ft tall trees turn a vibrant red as their leaves detach and turn the ground a similar scarlet hue. Many other Northern Red Oaks are scattered around the campus, but these are some of the tallest!  

3) Yoshino Cherry

The Quad, home of the most famous trees in Seattle!  Every spring, these Yoshino Cherry trees explode into an incredible pink and white bloom, showing the ground with a snow of petals and attracting tens of thousands of visitors. When in a less crowded state, the Quad is an excellent place to relax and lounge in fall or springtime sun. In winter, shelter from the rain can be found beneath the huge Coast Redwood tree near the south end of the Quad, its needles like a giant umbrella. 

4) Cedar of Lebanon

The Cedar of Lebanon is a main character in one of the worlds most ancient written stories. In the "Epic of Gilgamesh", a pair of Mesopotamian adventurers climb the mountains to slay the guardian of the trees and cut them down for timber. In the end, this desecration of the sacred forest leads to mass erosion into the rivers and ultimately topples the agricultural kingdom of Gilgamesh. Although most of the old Cedar Forest of the middle east is no more, you can still enjoy these lovely examples of the species here bordering a beautiful garden and lawn beside the north campus dorms! This tree graces the flag of Lebanon, the only tree honored on a national flag.

5) Weeping Willow

These whimsical drooping trees surround the sports field that serves as an outdoor focal point for the thousands of students living in the North Campus Housing. On a warm day, you can enjoy their shade and swaying boughs, and their winter form maintains a sculptural quality even after the leaves have dropped in fall!  

6) Douglas-Fir

The Douglas-fir is a titan of the Pacific Northwest. These trees can grow to over 300ft in height and over 10ft in diameter. Prior to colonization, massive forests of this species dominated the area where campus now stands. Today,  some of the tallest trees on campus are still Douglas-fir, including this beautiful individual on the edge of the Denny Lawn. This green space tucked in beside the quad has several lovely garden beds tucked among the grass with logs and benches for a nice rest. When rains come, the thick foliage of the Douglas-fir makes a nice umbrella! 

7) London Planetree

The London Planetree has an interesting history, gaining its name by being one of the few species of tree that could thrive in London during the industrial revolution. The thick toxic coal soot of that era had limited ability to harm this tree due to its constantly peeling bark, which shed the toxic pollution in bits and pieces. Its fuzzy leaves make it an excellent air filter, and when planted along roads it can improve air quality with great success. These trees were all planted as memorials to students and staff who fell during the first World War, and they grow on today making this street one of the most aesthetic on campus. 

8) Sugar Pine

The Parrington Lawn is full of excellent large trees, but this is one of its best! This Sugar Pine stands sentinel over the gateway between the main body of campus and the "AVE". The restaurants and west campus dorms beyond are in the urban portion of the UW, with limited greenspace. Fortunately, this area on the edge of the main campus is a perfect park, with open lawns and shady patches for some time outside. This particular tree belongs to the species that holds the title of "largest pine", growing up to 270ft tall. Its impressive cones can grow up to two feet in length, and make for interesting decorations (if you can find them before the other students do). 

9) Shumard Red Oak

These trees are distinctive for growing straight out of the brick...surrounded by buildings...on top of an underground parking garage. Be like the Red Square Shumard Oaks and you can PERSIST no matter what's thrown at you! In addition to being impressive for just growing where they do, these trees add a lovely splash of green to the otherwise Red Square. In fall, they put on a spectacular autumn display with the leaves matching the bricks around them. 

10) Crabapples

Around the lawns near Drumheller Fountain are several excellent specimens of Crabapple. All are different varieties, which means each has its own particular look. In spring, this green space is an ethereal spot to relax. The trees burst into bloom as do their relatives in the nearby rose gardens (apples belong to the rose family of plants). The fruit of these trees in fall is edible, but distinctly bitter and not much worth trying. 

11) Oregon White Oak

This Oregon White Oak stands by the entrance of the largest medicinal plant garden in the western hemisphere. Strolling through its beds, one can find hundred upon hundred of edible and medicinal species from around the world. The oak deserves its place here. This species is an important traditional food source for many Tribes around the Pacific Northwest, producing a large crop of nutrient and fat dense acorns every few years! This tree has lost most of its native range in the state, including here in what is today Seattle but was once home to several large oak woodlands amongst the conifers. 

12) Giant Sequoia

This massive tree, the widest on campus, is actually just a baby compared to others in its species. Giant Sequoias can grow to heights of over 300ft tall and achieve trunk diameters in excess of 32ft across. They can live for over 3000 years, and survive countless wildfires during that time. Several large Sequoias are found on campus, but this one, the biggest, serves as the entryway to "Heron Haven" park. This little green space near the University's environmental science buildings is home to a wide area of large native trees and plants. This beauty is the product student care. The Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) spent years of volunteer work to remove the thick mat of invasive ivy which once covered this place and turn it instead into a little patch of native forest in the midst of the city. Benches and a small trail offer a welcome break between classes and studies. 

13) English Elm

The English Elm was once an extremely popular landscape tree, then came the Dutch Elm Disease. This invasive fungal pathogen has wiped out entire cities worth of trees from landscapes across the country, and UW is so fortunate to have a few stately specimens left on campus! Every few years, these trees are treated with a special fungicide to ensure that they can persist on into the future. These examples of this fascinating species dominate the upper end of the Sylvan Grove, a calm park space surrounded from the rest of the world by a wall of green.  

14) Bigleaf Maple

The twenty mile Burke-Gilman trail is a gorgeous green corridor which connects Ballard to Bothell along the route of the old Seattle, Lake Shore, and Eastern Railroad. The section which runs beside campus serves as a connector between the campus and sports complexes, and offers a relaxing recreation space under the canopy of great trees such as the Bigleaf Maple. The most common tree on the UW Campus, Bigleaf Maples grow into excellent shade trees, with tremendous leaves over a foot across! 

15) Black Cottonwood

Walking out to see the Black Cottonwoods of the Union Bay Natural Area offers a true chance to leave behind the hustle and bustle of the city. Feeling overwhelmed? Taking a stroll through this 74 acre restored wetland might help! It is a truly peaceful place in the midst of Seattle. With four miles of shoreline on Lake Washington, this is the second largest natural ecosystem left on the whole lake. The cottonwoods growing out near the Yesler Cove are just one of several varieties of trees common on the area, and birds, beavers, and other wildlife abound (even the occasional deer)!