Klehm Arboretum and Botanic Garden
Encyclopedia
Klehm Arboretum and Botanic Garden (63 ha / 155 acres) is a nonprofit arboretum
and botanical garden
located at 2715 South Main Street, Rockford, Illinois
. It is open daily except for major holidays; an admission fee is charged. Klehm can be reached at 815-965-8146. To learn more visit their website www.klehm.org.
The arboretum was first established in 1910 as Rockford Nursery by landscape architect William Lincoln Taylor, who planted many of the arboretum's trees. The Klehm family purchased the nursery in 1968 and maintained it until 1985, when they donated the property to the Winnebago County Forest Preserve District as an arboretum. In the early 1990s, the site was inventoried, a master plan developed, and a capital campaign undertaken. Garden plantings began in 1994.
The arboretum includes a pre-settlement Bur Oak
grove (5 ha / 12 acres) whose largest trees are estimated to be over 300 years old. It also includes over 50 species and cultivars of conifers, representing nine groups from North America
, Europe
, and Asia
, such as fir
s, Chamaecyparis
, juniper
s, spruce
s, pine
s, Douglas fir, yew
s, arborvitae, hemlock
, Nikko Fir
s, contorted Meyer's Spruce
, spiny Common Juniper
, columnar spired arborvitae, and the shaggy threadleaf Sawara Cypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera
'Filifera'). The birch
collection includes six species, Paper Birch
, Downy Birch
, New England Gray Birch
, River Birch
, Yellow Birch
, and Sweet Birch
.
The European collection includes mature Norway Maple
, Field Maple
, Pedunculate Oak
, English Elm
, European Beech
, Common Horse-chestnut
, Mountain Pine
and Scots Pine
, as well as European Larch
, European Hornbeam
, spindle tree (Euonymus europaeus), and Rowan
. The East Asian collection includes cork trees (Phellodendron
amurense), false cypress, katsura
, Amur Maple
, Japanese red and white magnolia
, flowering quince, and various honeysuckle
s. The Northern America collection includes American Beech
, Yellow Buckeye
, Cucumber tree, tulip-tree
, Ponderosa Pine
, Colorado Blue Spruce
, and Douglas-fir
.
Other woody plants include basswood
, Red Buckeye
, Black Cherry, American Chestnut
, dogwood
, Enkianthus
, Fontanesia
, fringe tree (Chionanthus
virginicus), hackberry, spiny Hemiptelea, Japanese Pagoda Tree
, Shagbark Hickory
, Umbrella Magnolia
, Scarlet Oak
, White Oak
, redbud, Carolina silverbell (Halesia
carolina), sourwood
, sweetgum, Viburnum
, Black Walnut
, and Wisteria
.
The gardens include a Butterfly Garden, Daylily Garden, Demonstration Gardens, Fountain Garden, Grass Garden, Hosta
Garden, Nancy Olson Children's Garden, and a Prehistoric Garden (with cycad
s, bald cypress, fern
s, Ginkgo
, horsetail
s, liverwort
s, moss
es and clubmosses, bristlecone pine
, and Dawn Redwood
).
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 at 2715 South Main Street, Rockford, Illinois
Rockford, Illinois
Rockford is a mid-sized city located on both banks of the Rock River in far northern Illinois. Often referred to as "The Forest City", Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County, Illinois, USA. As reported in the 2010 U.S. census, the city was home to 152,871 people, the third most populated...
. It is open daily except for major holidays; an admission fee is charged. Klehm can be reached at 815-965-8146. To learn more visit their website www.klehm.org.
The arboretum was first established in 1910 as Rockford Nursery by landscape architect William Lincoln Taylor, who planted many of the arboretum's trees. The Klehm family purchased the nursery in 1968 and maintained it until 1985, when they donated the property to the Winnebago County Forest Preserve District as an arboretum. In the early 1990s, the site was inventoried, a master plan developed, and a capital campaign undertaken. Garden plantings began in 1994.
The arboretum includes a pre-settlement Bur Oak
Bur oak
Quercus macrocarpa, the Bur Oak, sometimes spelled Burr Oak, is a species of oak in the white oak section Quercus sect. Quercus, native to North America in the eastern and midwestern United States and south-central Canada...
grove (5 ha / 12 acres) whose largest trees are estimated to be over 300 years old. It also includes over 50 species and cultivars of conifers, representing nine groups from North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, such as fir
Fir
Firs are a genus of 48–55 species of evergreen conifers in the family Pinaceae. They are found through much of North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, occurring in mountains over most of the range...
s, Chamaecyparis
Chamaecyparis
Chamaecyparis is a genus of conifers in the cypress family Cupressaceae, native to eastern Asia and western and eastern North America. In the nursery trade it is often incorrectly known as "false cypress" for lack of other common name, so as to distinguish it from other similar genera bearing...
, juniper
Juniper
Junipers are coniferous plants in the genus Juniperus of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on taxonomic viewpoint, there are between 50-67 species of juniper, widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere, from the Arctic, south to tropical Africa in the Old World, and to the...
s, spruce
Spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus Picea , a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the Family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal regions of the earth. Spruces are large trees, from tall when mature, and can be distinguished by their whorled branches and conical...
s, pine
Pine
Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...
s, Douglas fir, yew
Taxaceae
The family Taxaceae, commonly called the yew family, includes three genera and about 7 to 12 species of coniferous plants, or in other interpretations , six genera and about 30 species....
s, arborvitae, hemlock
Tsuga
Tsuga is a genus of conifers in the family Pinaceae. The common name hemlock is derived from a perceived similarity in the smell of its crushed foliage to that of the unrelated plant poison hemlock....
, Nikko Fir
Nikko Fir
Nikko Fir is a fir native to the mountains of central and southern Honshū and Shikoku, Japan...
s, contorted Meyer's Spruce
Meyer's Spruce
Picea meyeri is a species of spruce native to Nei Mongol in the northeast to Gansu in the southwest and also inhabiting Shanxi, Hebei and Shaanxi....
, spiny Common Juniper
Juniperus communis
Juniperus communis, the Common Juniper, is a species in the genus Juniperus, in the family Cupressaceae. It has the largest range of any woody plant, throughout the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere from the Arctic south in mountains to around 30°N latitude in North America, Europe and Asia.-...
, columnar spired arborvitae, and the shaggy threadleaf Sawara Cypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera
Chamaecyparis pisifera
Chamaecyparis pisifera Chamaecyparis pisifera Chamaecyparis pisifera (Sawara Cypress or Sawara is a species of false cypress, native to central and southern Japan, on the islands of Honshū and Kyūshū....
'Filifera'). The birch
Birch
Birch is a tree or shrub of the genus Betula , in the family Betulaceae, closely related to the beech/oak family, Fagaceae. The Betula genus contains 30–60 known taxa...
collection includes six species, Paper Birch
Paper Birch
Betula papyrifera is a species of birch native to northern North America.-Description:...
, Downy Birch
Downy Birch
Betula pubescens is a species of birch, native and abundant throughout northern Europe, Iceland, northern Asia and also Greenland....
, New England Gray Birch
Gray Birch
Betula populifolia is a deciduous tree native to North America. It ranges from southeastern Ontario east to Nova Scotia, and south to Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with disjunct populations in Indiana, Virginia, and North Carolina. It prefers poor, dry upland soils, but is also found in moist...
, River Birch
River Birch
Betula nigra is a species of birch native to the eastern United States from New Hampshire west to southern Minnesota, and south to northern Florida and east Texas...
, Yellow Birch
Yellow Birch
Betula alleghaniensis , is a species of birch native to eastern North America, from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, southern Quebec and Ontario, and the southeast corner of Manitoba in Canada, west to Minnesota, and south in the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia.It is a...
, and Sweet Birch
Sweet Birch
Betula lenta is a species of birch native to eastern North America, from southern Maine west to southernmost Ontario, and south in the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia.-Characteristics and habitat:It is a medium-sized deciduous tree reaching 20 m tall with...
.
The European collection includes mature Norway Maple
Norway Maple
Acer platanoides is a species of maple native to eastern and central Europe and southwest Asia, from France east to Russia, north to southern Scandinavia and southeast to northern Iran....
, Field Maple
Field Maple
Acer campestre, common name Field Maple, is a maple native to much of Europe, north to southern Scotland , Denmark, Poland and Belarus, and also southwest Asia from Turkey to the Caucasus, and north Africa in the Atlas Mountains...
, Pedunculate Oak
Pedunculate Oak
Quercus robur is commonly known as the Pedunculate Oak or English oak. It is native to most of Europe, and to Anatolia to the Caucasus, and also to parts of North Africa.-Taxonomy:Q...
, English Elm
English Elm
Ulmus procera Salisb., the English, Common, or more lately Atinian, Elm was, before the advent of Dutch elm disease, one of the largest and fastest-growing deciduous trees in Europe...
, European Beech
European Beech
Fagus sylvatica, the European Beech or Common Beech, is a deciduous tree belonging to the beech family Fagaceae.-Natural range:...
, Common Horse-chestnut
Common Horse-chestnut
Aesculus hippocastanum is a large deciduous tree, commonly known as Horse-chestnut or Conker tree.-Distribution:Aesculus hippocastanum is native to a small area in the mountains of the Balkans in southeast Europe, in small areas in northern Greece, Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, and...
, Mountain Pine
Mountain Pine
Pinus mugo, the Mountain Pine or Mugo Pine, is a high-altitude European pine, found in the Pyrenees, Alps, Erzgebirge, Carpathians, northern Apennines and Balkan Peninsula mountains from 1,000 m to 2,200 m, occasionally as low as 200 m in the north of the range in Germany and Poland, and as high...
and Scots Pine
Scots Pine
Pinus sylvestris, commonly known as the Scots Pine, is a species of pine native to Europe and Asia, ranging from Scotland, Ireland and Portugal in the west, east to eastern Siberia, south to the Caucasus Mountains, and as far north as well inside the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia...
, as well as European Larch
European Larch
Larix decidua, common name European larch, is a species of larch native to the mountains of central Europe, in the Alps and Carpathians, with disjunct lowland populations in northern Poland and southern Lithuania.-Description:...
, European Hornbeam
Hornbeam
Hornbeams are relatively small hardwood trees in the genus Carpinus . Though some botanists grouped them with the hazels and hop-hornbeams in a segregate family, Corylaceae, modern botanists place the hornbeams in the birch subfamily Coryloideae...
, spindle tree (Euonymus europaeus), and Rowan
Rowan
The rowans or mountain-ashes are shrubs or small trees in genus Sorbus of family Rosaceae. They are native throughout the cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the highest species diversity in the mountains of western China and the Himalaya, where numerous apomictic microspecies...
. The East Asian collection includes cork trees (Phellodendron
Phellodendron
Phellodendron or Cork-tree, is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Rutaceae, native to east and northeast Asia. It has leathery, pinnate leaves and yellow, clumped flowers. The name refers to the thick and corky bark of some species in the genus.-Cultivation and uses:As an ornamental plant,...
amurense), false cypress, katsura
Katsura
-Architecture:*The Katsura imperial villa, one of Japan's most important architectural treasures, and a World Heritage Site-Geography:*Katsuura, Chiba, city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan*Katsura, Tokushima, a town in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan...
, Amur Maple
Amur Maple
Acer ginnala is a plant species with woody stems native to northeastern Asia from easternmost Mongolia east to Korea and Japan, and north to southeastern Siberia in the Amur River valley...
, Japanese red and white magnolia
Magnolia
Magnolia is a large genus of about 210 flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. It is named after French botanist Pierre Magnol....
, flowering quince, and various honeysuckle
Honeysuckle
Honeysuckles are arching shrubs or twining vines in the family Caprifoliaceae, native to the Northern Hemisphere. There are about 180 species of honeysuckle, 100 of which occur in China; Europe, India and North America have only about 20 native species each...
s. The Northern America collection includes American Beech
American Beech
Fagus grandifolia, also known as American Beech or North american beech, is a species of beech native to eastern North America, from Nova Scotia west to southern Ontario in southeastern Canada, west to Wisconsin and south to eastern Texas and northern Florida in the United States. Trees in the...
, Yellow Buckeye
Yellow Buckeye
Yellow Buckeye is a species of buckeye native to the Ohio Valley and Appalachian Mountains of the Eastern United States. It is a medium-sized deciduous tree growing to 20–47 m tall...
, Cucumber tree, tulip-tree
Liriodendron tulipifera
Liriodendron tulipifera, commonly known as the tulip tree, American tulip tree, tuliptree, tulip poplar or yellow poplar, is the Western Hemisphere representative of the two-species genus Liriodendron, and the tallest eastern hardwood...
, Ponderosa Pine
Ponderosa Pine
Pinus ponderosa, commonly known as the Ponderosa Pine, Bull Pine, Blackjack Pine, or Western Yellow Pine, is a widespread and variable pine native to western North America. It was first described by David Douglas in 1826, from eastern Washington near present-day Spokane...
, Colorado Blue Spruce
Blue Spruce
Picea pungens is a species of spruce native to western North America, from southeast Idaho and southwest Wyoming, south through Utah and Colorado to Arizona and New Mexico. It grows at high altitudes from altitude, though unlike Engelmann Spruce in the same area, it does not reach the alpine...
, and Douglas-fir
Douglas-fir
Douglas-fir is one of the English common names for evergreen coniferous trees of the genus Pseudotsuga in the family Pinaceae. Other common names include Douglas tree, and Oregon pine. There are five species, two in western North America, one in Mexico, and two in eastern Asia...
.
Other woody plants include basswood
Tilia americana
Tilia americana is a species of Tilia native to eastern North America, from southeast Manitoba east to New Brunswick, southwest to northeast Texas, and southeast to South Carolina, and west along the Niobrara River to Cherry County, Nebraska...
, Red Buckeye
Red Buckeye
Aesculus pavia, known as Red Buckeye or Firecracker Plant, is a species of deciduous flowering plant. The small tree or shrub is native to the southern and eastern parts of the United States, found from Illinois to Virginia in the north and from Texas to Florida in the south...
, Black Cherry, American Chestnut
American Chestnut
The American Chestnut is a large, deciduous tree of the beech family native to eastern North America. Before the species was devastated by the chestnut blight, a fungal disease, it was one of the most important forest trees throughout its range...
, dogwood
Dogwood
The genus Cornus is a group of about 30-60 species of woody plants in the family Cornaceae, commonly known as dogwoods. Most dogwoods are deciduous trees or shrubs, but a few species are nearly herbaceous perennial subshrubs, and a few of the woody species are evergreen...
, Enkianthus
Enkianthus
Enkianthus is a genus of shrubs or small trees in the heath family . Its native range is in Asia, as far west as the eastern Himalayas, as far south as Indochina, and as far north and east as China and Japan....
, Fontanesia
Fontanesia
Fontanesia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae, usually treated as comprising a single species Fontanesia philliraeoides, though some authors split this into two species...
, fringe tree (Chionanthus
Chionanthus
Chionanthus is a genus of about 80 species of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae.The genus has a wide distribution primarily in the tropics and subtropics, but with two species extending north into temperate regions, one in eastern Asia and one in eastern North America...
virginicus), hackberry, spiny Hemiptelea, Japanese Pagoda Tree
Styphnolobium
Styphnolobium is a small genus of three or four species of small trees and shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae, formerly included within a broader interpretation of the genus Sophora. The species of Styphnolobium differ from Sophora in lacking the ability to form symbioses...
, Shagbark Hickory
Shagbark Hickory
Carya ovata, the Shagbark Hickory, is a common hickory in the eastern United States and southeast Canada. It is a large deciduous tree, growing up to 27 m tall, and will live up to 200 years. Mature Shagbarks are easy to recognize because, as their name implies, they have shaggy bark...
, Umbrella Magnolia
Umbrella magnolia
Magnolia tripetala, commonely called Umbrella magnolia or simply Umbrella-tree, is a deciduous tree native to the southeastern United States in the Appalachian Mountains region. Umbrella magnolias have large shiny leaves 30-50 cm long, spreading from stout stems. In a natural setting the Umbrella...
, Scarlet Oak
Scarlet Oak
Quercus coccinea, the scarlet oak, is an oak in the red oak section Quercus sect. Lobatae. The scarlet oak can be mistaken for the pin oak, the black oak, or occasionally the red oak. On scarlet oak the sinuses between lobes are "C"-shaped in comparison to pin oak , which has "U"-shaped sinuses...
, White Oak
White Oak
White Oak may refer to:* Quercus alba, a species commonly known as the White Oak* any of various trees from the botanical section Quercus within the list of Quercus species* a 1921 silent western written/produced by and starring William S...
, redbud, Carolina silverbell (Halesia
Halesia
Halesia , also known as is a small genus of four or five species of deciduous large shrubs or small trees in the family Styracaceae, native to eastern Asia and eastern North America...
carolina), sourwood
Sourwood
Sourwood or sorrel tree is the sole species in the genus Oxydendrum, in the family Ericaceae. It is native to eastern North America, from southern Pennsylvania south to northwest Florida and west to southern Illinois; it is most common in the lower chain of the Appalachian Mountains...
, sweetgum, Viburnum
Viburnum
Viburnum is a genus of about 150–175 species of shrubs or small trees in the moschatel family, Adoxaceae. Its current classification is based on molecular phylogeny...
, Black Walnut
Black Walnut
Juglans nigra, the Eastern Black walnut, is a species of flowering tree in the hickory family, Juglandaceae, that is native to eastern North America. It grows mostly in riparian zones, from southern Ontario, west to southeast South Dakota, south to Georgia, northern Florida and southwest to central...
, and Wisteria
Wisteria
Wisteria is a genus of flowering plants in the pea family, Fabaceae, that includes ten species of woody climbing vines native to the eastern United States and to China, Korea, and Japan. Aquarists refer to the species Hygrophila difformis, in the family Acanthaceae, as Water Wisteria...
.
The gardens include a Butterfly Garden, Daylily Garden, Demonstration Gardens, Fountain Garden, Grass Garden, Hosta
Hosta
Hosta is a genus of about 23–45 species of lily-like plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae, native to northeast Asia. They have been placed in their own family, Hostaceae ; like many 'lilioid monocots', they were once classified in the Liliaceae...
Garden, Nancy Olson Children's Garden, and a Prehistoric Garden (with cycad
Cycad
Cycads are seed plants typically characterized by a stout and woody trunk with a crown of large, hard and stiff, evergreen leaves. They usually have pinnate leaves. The individual plants are either all male or all female . Cycads vary in size from having a trunk that is only a few centimeters...
s, bald cypress, fern
Fern
A fern is any one of a group of about 12,000 species of plants belonging to the botanical group known as Pteridophyta. Unlike mosses, they have xylem and phloem . They have stems, leaves, and roots like other vascular plants...
s, Ginkgo
Ginkgo
Ginkgo , also spelled gingko and known as the Maidenhair Tree, is a unique species of tree with no close living relatives...
, horsetail
Horsetail
Equisetum is the only living genus in the Equisetaceae, a family of vascular plants that reproduce by spores rather than seeds.Equisetum is a "living fossil", as it is the only living genus of the entire class Equisetopsida, which for over one hundred million years was much more diverse and...
s, liverwort
Marchantiophyta
The Marchantiophyta are a division of bryophyte plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like other bryophytes, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of genetic information....
s, moss
Moss
Mosses are small, soft plants that are typically 1–10 cm tall, though some species are much larger. They commonly grow close together in clumps or mats in damp or shady locations. They do not have flowers or seeds, and their simple leaves cover the thin wiry stems...
es and clubmosses, bristlecone pine
Pine
Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...
, and Dawn Redwood
Metasequoia
Metasequoia is a fast-growing, deciduous tree, and the sole living species, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, is one of three species of conifers known as redwoods. It is native to the Sichuan-Hubei region of China. Although the least tall of the redwoods, it grows to at least 200 feet in height...
).