KU News Release

KU botanists create Craig and Caleb’s list of flora on Jayhawk Boulevard

LAWRENCE — Craig Freeman and Caleb Morse, botanists at the University of Kansas, have outlined a route — and a list of plants — to view spring flora on campus for a free public tour scheduled on Saturday, April 26.

Come rain or shine, the tour will begin at 11 a.m. at the Kansas Union lobby and is expected to run about 90 minutes. About 10 people have signed up for the tour, which can accommodate 40 people. Thunderstorms would cancel the event until next year.

Margey Frederick, director of Special Events and Visitor Services, is coordinating the tour. Reservations can be made with Frederick by calling (785) 864-7103 or e-mailing mfrederick@ku.edu.

The public tour of campus flora is the first in recent history. Roughly, the route will follow Jayhawk Boulevard west to the Chi Omega fountain and then turn back east at the Korean War Memorial on Memorial Drive. The route continues along the drive with stops at the Campanile, the wooded area known as Marvin Grove, the Spencer Museum of Art and ending at the Kansas Union.

“We are hoping first for great weather and then that our tour will give people an opportunity to explore the campus and perhaps pick up a few botanical tips. Some people may want to make a day of it on campus,” Frederick said.

The Kansas Union serves lunch until 2 p.m. The KU Bookstore, Natural History Museum, Spencer art museum and Dole Institute of Politics are also open on Saturdays.

A recent tree density study of the campus by a KU global information systems class indicated there are about 29,500 trees on the Lawrence campus — roughly one tree for every student. About 10,000 of those trees are on the older section of the campus where Jayhawk Boulevard and Memorial Drive are located.

Among the 10,000 trees, the two botanists had listed more than 115 kinds of trees, shrubs and woody vines on campus by April 1. Freeman estimates that once they begin to catalog the herbaceous or the nonwoody plants on campus such as daffodils or bluegrass, the total number on “Craig and Caleb’s list” could grow to more than 500 species. Freeman notes that about 1,000 species of herbaceous plants have been identified in Douglas County.

They update the list as time and weather allow them to identify plants. The list includes common and scientific names of plants as well as approximate locations on campus. In addition to providing the list to those taking the tour, KU will post the list online so that anyone interested could walk the flora tour and locate the plants in any season.

Spring has been slow to arrive this year, Freeman noted. During the first week of April, he and Morse found red maples and American elms in flower on Jayhawk Boulevard and Cornelian cherry dogwoods flowering along Memorial Drive between Strong and Bailey halls; forsythia in bloom on the north slopes above Potter Lake; and magnolia trees loaded with buds near the entrances of Twente and Lindley halls.

Beyond the many kinds of redbud, plum, crab apple and pear trees on the list, Freeman and Morse have identified bald cypress, cottonwood (Kansas state tree), common persimmon, green ash, ginkgo, horse chestnut, Kentucky coffee bean, Osage orange and sycamore. They list seven kinds of maples, five of oak and willow trees, three of crab apple, cherry and dogwood trees and two kinds of magnolia. Shrubs include orange-eye butterfly bush, rhododendron, Rose-of-Sharon, panicled hydrangea, four kinds of lilac, two of sumac and poison ivy.

The McGregor Herbarium is one of 12 research divisions of KU’s Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center. The herbarium is open by appointment during the week to scientists and the public by calling (785) 864-4493.

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The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. University Relations is the central public relations office for KU's Lawrence campus.