By Harold
I can honestly say that I have never thought about the thousands of trees that dot UNC’s campus (or any other trees, for that matter). But it was a beautiful day and I wanted to learn more about UNC’s campus, so I decided to take a walking tour called “In Praise of UNC’s Noble Trees” led by horticulturist Michael Dirr.
Laura joked on the way over that it might end up being a personal tour, and I didn’t disagree. So imagine my surprise when there were at least 100 people there. And not 100 as in, wow this is a lot of people and 100 is a round number. It was 100 as in, I stopped counting at 50 and wasn’t even close to halfway around the circle. Is there a subculture of tree lovers I didn’t know existed? And this was at 3:30, so it presumably disqualified a lot of people with day jobs, although some people in this group exhibited so much enthusiasm that it wouldn’t surprise me if they called in sick.
Anyway, it turns out trees play a very important role on campus. The school’s origin story is that William R. Davie was sitting under the Davie Poplar when he decided it would be the perfect spot to build the campus (like most origin stories, it’s not true). Another legend is that the university will stand as long as the tree does, which is why it’s currently held up by cables and the trunk is filled with cement.
Its clone, Davie Jr., was planted next to it in 1918, and for the bicentennial of the university’s founding, a seed from Davie Jr. was planted in each of the 100 counties in the state (including Chapel Hill, where Davie III stands next to Davie Jr.).
Trees are also a big part of the original layout of the university, and there’s been some giant battles during expansion on whether to keep the trees there or not. At one point, a tunnel was dug 40 feet below the ground to save a Northern Catalpa on South Road.
I couldn’t follow along with all the different trees that were being shown during the tour, but you didn’t have to be a horticulturist to appreciate the varieties or trunks, branches and leaves and the majesty of some of the old trees on the main quads. It was good to look up for once instead of straight ahead, and it definitely gives you a new perspective on a quad that you walked through a hundred times.
The tour was a one-time-only thing (although after seeing the turnout, it wouldn’t shock me if UNC held it again). But if you’re interested, there’s currently an exhibit at UNC’s Wilson Library through May 31 called Noble Trees, Traveled Paths: The Carolina Landscape Since 1793.
Laura
Harold
