Crim Dell Meadow

Sequoia sempervirens Closeup of needles on one of the Coast Redwoods.

Redwood Bench Constructed from wood salvaged after damage to the Coast Redwood trees.

Juglans nigra A Black Walnut (right) in the Crim Dell Meadow west of James Blair Hall.

Taxodium distichum The bald cypress in its natural habitat. Note the buttressing of the trunk for stability in water.

Metasequoia glyptostroboides The muscular, fluted trunks of two Dawn Redwoods.

Corylus avellana 'Contorta' Harry Lauder’s (very contorted) walking stick! Photo courtesy Missouri Botanical Garden

"Spring" Crim Dell Meadow provides a natural setting for this sculpture, titled "Spring." Photo courtesy Missouri Botanical Garden

Magnolia grandiflora Several Southern Magnolias can be found around Crim Dell. Photo courtesy Missouri Botanical Garden

Magnolia virginiana Note the sweet bay magnolia has a white bloom to the undersides of its leaves. Its stature is quite different from the southern magnolia although its flowers are similar. Bruce K. Kirchoff http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu/

Metasquoia glyptostroboides Just beyond the far end of the Sunken Garden are the tallest Dawn Redwood trees in North America. Bruce K. Kirchoff http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu/

Crim Dell Meadow

Just west of the Tyler and Sunken Gardens, the Crim Dell Meadow offers surprising features and remarkable plant diversity. Entering the meadow from the Tyler Garden sidewalk, you’ll find new plantings like northern white cedar (Thuja occidentalis) and fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatic ‘Gro-Lo’) mingling with more Japanese cleyera.

Near the Sunken Garden fence, look for a full specimen of scarlet buckeye (Aesculus pavia). Just west of the Tyler Garden’s brick wall stand two large coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens), shipped from California around Cape Horn and planted as cuttings in 1953. Though the northern tree lost a large limb in a 2002 windstorm and the southern tree lost its top in Hurricane Isabel in 2003, their legacy lives on. Adolph Hight, then director of facilities management, preserved the fallen wood to create a unique bench placed between the trees—a collaborative project involving Professor Pease (Art and Art History), students Emily Fraser ’07 and Nathan Burgess ’08, carpenter Mike Wood, and College arborist Matthew Trowbridge.

The meadow also features a spectacular Japanese full moon maple (Acer japonicum ‘Aconitifolium’) that has survived two relocations due to construction. Nearby are a weeping willow (Salix babylonica) and native specimens of black walnut (Juglans nigra), eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana), and loblolly pine (Pinus taeda).

On the western edge, flanking the woods, stands an unusual double-trunked “tree” combining a tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) and an American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis). Cultivated species along the wooded border include Aucuba (Aucuba japonica), chaste tree (Vitex agnus-castus), eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), and camellias.

Among the most notable are two dawn redwoods (Metasequoia glyptostroboides). Thought extinct for over 13 million years until rediscovered in 1946 in Sichuan, China, seeds collected by plant explorers were sent to Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum and distributed worldwide. Professor Baldwin obtained seeds on a 1948 visit to Belgium’s national botanical garden, which Professor Bernice Speese germinated and nurtured here. A smaller tree grown from Arnold Arboretum seeds is also at Duke University. If you’re familiar with bald cypress trees, you’ll notice how similar dawn redwoods appear.

Nearby, you can find other interesting plants such as Harry Lauder’s walking stick (Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’), Chinese juniper (Juniperus chinensis), a boxwood collection, cypress (Chamaecyparis species), river birch (Betula nigra), sweet bay (Magnolia virginiana), and flowering dogwood (Cornus candensis).

Be sure to find the bronze statue titled “Spring” located within the meadow. From there, exit on the adjacent small trail, head south, and cross over the picturesque Crim Dell bridge.