Jackson’s Garden

        Jackson’s Garden is one of the most distinct parts of the Union College campus. With year-round access to students and community members alike, the garden has become an important part of Schenectady. Jackson’s Gardens deep history starts in 1831 when Isaac Jackson, a professor of mathematics, began planting in the garden after urging from President Eliphalet Nott. The garden officially established in 1850, making it the “oldest continuously cultivated garden on a college or university campus in the United States.” Since its founding the garden has grown to an eight-and-a-half-acre space with over 93 species of trees and other plants. In 1958 the Plant Survey of the Union College Campus was published. In this study every plant in the garden was recorded and analyzed. Below are some of the more notable trees in this details record.

Trees:

Ginkgo biloba L.

Tree with fan-shape deciduous leaves. The female, bears yellow plum-like fetid fruits. Of great historic interest as a "living fossil' gymnosperm.

Abies balsamea (L.) Mill. Balsam Fir

Evergreen tree with the flat needles spreading out from each side of the twig in the same plane Twigs fragrant.

Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carr. Common Hemlock

Evergreen tree; petiolate, short, linear and flat, bright green above and silvery beneath.

Picea Abies (L.) Karst. Norway Spruce

Evergreen tree; branchlets slender, frequently pendulous. four sided, acute, dark green and shining, those on the upper side of the branchlets directed forward.

Metasequoia glyptostroboides Dawn Redwood

Deciduous leaf conifer recently introduced from eastern China, a relative of the California Redwood.

Thuja occidentalis L. American Arbor Vitae, White Cedar

Evergreen tree with vs. scalelike and appressed to axis of the branchlets forming a flattened complex of photosynthetic surface

Salix nigra Marsh. Black Willow Tree

3-20 m. high, flaky dark brown to blackish bark, leaves elongate-lanceolate, deep green on both sides.

Salix fragilis L. Crack Willow Tree

30 m. high with thick rough back; young branchlets yellowish glabrous, lustrous, very brittle at the base; leaves lanceolate, glabrous, undulate-serrate.

Salix discolor Muhl. Large Pussy-Willow

Large shrub or small gray-barked tree up to 6 m. high; branch- lets glabrous; aments expanding long before the leaves sessile; leaves expanding after ripening of fruit, bright green above, paler below, lanceolate to narrowly obovate, petioled.

Populus tremuloides Michx. Quaking Aspen or Trembling Aspen

Tree to 20m. high with smooth or smoothish greenish-grey bark on younger branches. Lvs. ovate to rhombic, glabrous, rounded at base, as long as or longer than broad; petiole elongate, flattened.

Populus deltoides Marsh Cottonwood Tree

30m. high, with old bark gray, deeply ridged, younger bark yellow-green and smoother; buds resinous and fragrant; 1vs. on short branches, triangular ovate.

Carya glabra Sweet. Pignut Hickory Tree

20m. young branchlets reddish-brown and glabrous; bark close, becoming furrowed and ridged, light gray.

Fagus grandifolie. Ehrh. American Beech

Large tree; leaves pale or yellowish green, oblong-ovate, coarsely serrate; distinct, pointed buds; bark smooth, light gray.

Quercus alba L. White Oak

Large tree with flaky light-colored bark; mature leaves glabrous and whitened with rounded lobes; branchlets glabrous, becoming reddish-brown.

Quercus rubra L. Red Oak

Large tree; bark hard and deeply furrowed; fruit sessile or very short stalked; leaves slender-petioled.

Ulmus rubra Muhl. Slippery Elm

Small or medium size tree with single trunk; winter buds downy with rusty hairs; leaves ciliate and scabrous to touch; branch- lets downy.

Ulmus americana L. American or White Elm

Large trees; buds glabrous as are branchlets. The large ornamental elms on campus occurring in all sections.

Morus rubra L. Red Mulberry Tree

Leaves rough above, downy beneath. Along brook west of Terrace wall.

Morus alba L. White Mulberry Tree

Leaves variously lobed glabrous shining above; hairy on axils below. Widely scattered over the Campus by "bird distribution"

Sassafras albidum (Nutt.) Nees Sassafras Tree

40 m. though rarely more than a freeze-back regrowth here at the northward limit of its range. Twigs greenish, fragrant and mucilaginous; leaves variously lobed or entire; flowers greenish yellow appearing early in clusters and followed by blue drupes on fleshy reddish pedicels.

Liquidambar StyracifluaL. Sweet Gum

Large southern tree, gray barl: with corkt ridges on branchlets; leaves rounded, deeply 5-7 lobed, smooth and shining, fra- grant when bruised, turning deep crimson in autumn. Woods usually swampy.

Prunus Avium L. Sweet Cherry

Tree with ashy-gray branches; leaves soft, inclining to droop, abruptly acuminate, pubescent on nerves beneath, coarsely and doubly dentate; fruit 2-2.5 cm. in diameter subglobose, deeply cordate at base, red to purplish black. Roadsides, thickets. Cultivated.

Prunus serotina Ench. Wild Black Cherry

Tree up to 30 m. high, with darl bark, branches reddish brown, inner bark acomatic, smelling like oil of bitter almonds; leaves crenate-serrate, dark green and lustrous above, pale green beneath, broad midrib prominent beneath with rusty hairs near the blade base; flowers white in elongate pendent clusters; fruit 7-10 mm. in diameter globose, dark-red, be- coming purple-black, sweetish or bitter. Dry woods and fence-rows.

Acer platanoides L. Norway Maple

Tree, with milky sap; planted and becoming naturalized in waste places; trunk dark brown to blackish; leaves large, deep green becoming yellow in the fall.

Acer saccharum Marsh, Sugar Maple

Large tree, planted and naturalized.

BIbliograophy:

Mr. Jackson's garden. Union College News Archives. (1996, July 1). Retrieved May 14, 2022, from https://muse.union.edu/newsarchives/1996/07/01/mr-jacksons-garden/#:~:text=The%20garden%20is%20named%20for,Nott's%20early%20years%20as%20president.

Winne, W. T., & Carl, C. (1958). Plant Survey of the Union College Campus. Union College.