For the person with this name see Christie Lee Woods

Christie Lee Woods

Christie Lee Woods is an American model, actress and the first woman from Texas to capture the Miss Teen USA crown ....

Christy Woods (18 acres) is an arboretum

Arboretum

An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...

 and botanical garden

Botanical garden

A botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...

 located on the southwest corner of the Ball State University

Ball State University

Ball State University is a state-run research university located in Muncie, Indiana. It is also known as Ball State or simply BSU.Located on the northwest side of the city, Ball State's campus spans and includes 106 buildings...

 campus in Muncie, Indiana

Muncie, Indiana

Muncie is a city in Center Township, Delaware County in east central Indiana, best known as the home of Ball State University and the birthplace of the Ball Corporation. It is the principal city of the Muncie, Indiana, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a population of 118,769...

, and focusing on Indiana

Indiana

Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

's native plants and ecosystems.

Christy Woods was part of the original land gift to the State of Indiana from the Ball Brothers

Ball Brothers

The Ball brothers were the founders of the Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Business which eventually became Ball Corporation. They greatly improved the quality of life of Muncie, Indiana through their philanthropy and business. They were instrumental in the creation of Ball State University, and...

 in 1918. Dr. O. B. Christy worked with his biology classes to transplant wild flowers from around the state of Indiana into the woods. In 1928, trails and garden beds were created.

Today approximately three-fourths of the area is covered by mature forest, dominated by a mixture of oak

Oak

An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...

, hickory

Hickory

Trees in the genus Carya are commonly known as hickory, derived from the Powhatan language of Virginia. The genus includes 17–19 species of deciduous trees with pinnately compound leaves and big nuts...

, ash

Ash tree

Fraxinus is a genus flowering plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae. It contains 45-65 species of usually medium to large trees, mostly deciduous though a few subtropical species are evergreen. The tree's common English name, ash, goes back to the Old English æsc, while the generic name...

, walnut

Walnut

Juglans is a plant genus of the family Juglandaceae, the seeds of which are known as walnuts. They are deciduous trees, 10–40 meters tall , with pinnate leaves 200–900 millimetres long , with 5–25 leaflets; the shoots have chambered pith, a character shared with the wingnuts , but not the hickories...

, hackberry, and maple

Maple

Acer is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple.Maples are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or together with the Hippocastanaceae included in the family Sapindaceae. Modern classifications, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, favour inclusion in...

. Christy Wood is also home to three greenhouse

Greenhouse

A greenhouse is a building in which plants are grown. These structures range in size from small sheds to very large buildings...

s for the Wheeler Orchid Collection and Species Bank

Wheeler Orchid Collection and Species Bank

The Wheeler Orchid Collection and Species Bank is located within Christy Woods, an 18 acre property located on the southwest corner of the Ball State University campus in Muncie, Indiana, USA....

, teaching and research, and propagation of native species.

It is also believed to be haunted by a former Ball State student that committed suicide as well as a satyr and a very unkempt woman (who may be the suicide victim). People hear diembodied voices in the woods.

Christy Woods has recently been designated a federally protected botanical preserve as it is the last standing sizable old growth scarlet oak habitat. The scarlet oak, or Quercus coccinea, commonly referred to by early Mormon settlers as the 'squirrelnutty tree' have become quite rare in recent years due to Korean beetle infestations.

External Links

• Historic photographs of Christy Woods from the Ball State University Digital Media Repository.