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| The arboretum's lone black walnut (Juglans nigra) has visibly suffered from the August heat wave and lack of rain. However, this isn't much of a surprise: our black walnut has a history of drought/heat intolerance. It was originally collected from Marion County, Texas, and planted in the arboretum during the spring of 2000. Eleven years later, during the 2011 drought, it died back to the ground, and then resprouted the following year. |
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| The black walnut grows in full sun, toward the top of the grassy slope north of Cline Hall dormitory. As seen in the above photograph, this individual has lost most of its leaflets, and of the remaining leaflets, we mostly see yellow rather than pretty green coloration. And, looking closely at the thin trunk, we see significant scaring. Overall, this tree is unhappy in its location. It has plenty of sunlight, but not the desired soil mixture. You wouldn't think this specimen was almost 25 years old. |
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| Happily, the twigs look okay. So, we expect this black walnut to leaf-out during the spring of 2024. Although this individual isn't the prettiest tree, we are thankful to have it in the collection as an example of its species. |
