John J. Tyler Arboretum
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John J. Tyler Arboretum (263 ha / 650 acres) is a nonprofit arboretum located at 515 Painter Road, Media, Pennsylvania. It is open daily except for major holidays; an admission fee is charged to non-members.
The property's history began in 1681, when William Penn signed a "lease and release" agreement with Thomas Minshall, an English Quaker, for property in Pennsylvania that contained the site now occupied by the arboretum. Between 1681 and 1944, the property was home to eight generations of the same family. The arboretum itself started in 1825 when two brothers, Jacob and Minshall Painter, set aside land to systematically plant more than 1,000 varieties of trees and shrubs. In 1944 descendant Laura Tyler bequeathed the property, in memorial to her husband John J. Tyler, to be a nonprofit arboretum.
Today the arboretum contains the following major features:
- The original Painter Trees: 1. Lebanon Cedar (Cedrus libani), the largest in Pennsylvania; 2. Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba); 3. Yulan Magnolia (Magnolia denudata); 4. Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum); 5. Red Maple (Acer rubrum) 6. Osage-orange (Maclura pomifera), blown down by a hurricane in 1954; 7. Cucumbertree Magnolia (Magnolia acuminata); 8. Baldcypress (Taxodium distichum), the largest in Pennsylvania; 9. Eastern Cottonwood (Populus deltoides); 10. Tulip-tree (Liriodendron tulipifera); 11. Yellow Buckeye (Aesculus flava); 12. Fraser Magnolia (Magnolia fraseri); 13. Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum), the largest giant sequoia in Pennsylvania and possibly in the eastern United States; 14. White Oak (Quercus alba); 15. Swamp White Oak (Quercus bicolor); 16. White Fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus); 17. Corsican Pine (Pinus nigra var. corsicana); 18. Sawara Cypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera); 19. River Birch (Betula nigra); 20. American Holly (Ilex opaca); 21. Caucasian Spruce (Picea orientalis), the largest Pennsylvania; and 22. American Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua).
- Ornamentals - collections of flowering cherry (begun in 1951 with 45 plants representing 23 species and varieties); magnolia (begun 1951); crabapple (1951-1953); rhododendron (begun 1959 with more than 500 rhododendrons and 200 azaleas); holly; and lilac.
- Pinetum (34 ha / 85 acres, begun in 1954) - containing pines, spruces, hemlocks, firs, cedars, cypresses and larches
- Native Woodland Walk (begun in 1970)
- Meadow Maze - a recent four-ring labyrinth of meadow grasses based on a classical seven-ringed design
- Pink Hill - a barren of serpentine stone with wildflowers
- Uncultivated land (180 ha / 450 acres) that remain natural and contain 32 km / 20 miles of marked trails.
