KU News Release

KU plans spring flora tour along Jayhawk Boulevard on April 26

LAWRENCE — Long recognized for its natural beauty, the University of Kansas campus can really turn on the charm come spring.

This year, two botanists with KU’s R.L. McGregor Herbarium, Craig Freeman and Caleb Morse, plan to lead a free public tour of flora along the main campus thoroughfare, Jayhawk Boulevard, on Saturday, April 26.

They will point out varieties of redbud, plum, crab apple, pear, maple, oak and walnut trees in bloom along the hill and slopes of the ridge known as Mount Oread. Though their focus will be trees and shrubs, some of the naturalized annual and perennial plantings along the tour route also will be identified.

The spring flora tour is a first for KU — at least in recent history. It also is a first for Freeman and Morse. Both give wildflower tours throughout Kansas, but neither has mapped a tour of flora along Jayhawk Boulevard. Freeman cautions that it is too early to predict what will be in bloom on April 26. They will scout the boulevard for budding plants in March and announce more details later.

The tour will begin at 11 a.m. and conclude an hour to 90 minutes later — come rain or shine. It will start and finish at the Kansas Union lobby. The tour will be limited to about 40 participants.

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

Freeman said if March and April are warm and dry, most of the showy rosaceous trees and shrubs, which include crab apples and plum trees, may be finished blooming.

“We know we’ll be able to look at representative evergreens — especially pines and junipers — and we should catch some redbuds, viburnums, oaks and maples in bloom,” he said. “We’ll definitely stop to look at the persimmon and ginkgo trees in front of Strong Hall.”

Persimmons are native to Kansas; ginkgos are not. Ginkgos, sometimes called living fossils, have an evolutionary lineage that goes back several hundred million years and are related to conifers, cone-bearing trees like evergreens.

Freeman hopes to provide a list of the plant species, with common and scientific names, that will be focal points of the tour.

The tour will include historical perspectives on changes in vegetation in the area.

“Public records going to back to when the area was surveyed show that most of the upland area around Lawrence was grassland,” Freeman said.

Early campus photos reveal a stark, nearly treeless landscape. But since KU opened its first building in 1866, state officials, KU leaders and area residents have worked to transform the campus into the distinctive, beautiful public space. It paid off: The campus was described as one of the 12 most beautiful in the nation in Thomas A. Gaines’ 1991 book “The Campus as a Work of Art.”

Visitors interested in lingering after the tour can get lunch at the Kansas Union food court. Other points of interest for visitors include four university museums open on Saturday: the Natural History Museum; Spencer Museum of Art; Booth Hall of Athletics; and Dole Institute of Politics. More information about museum hours and locations is available online.

The R.L. 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.