Over the years, the layout of Lafayette’s campus has constantly changed. Widespread development and construction has led to the removal of many trees. I’ve always enjoyed looking at old pictures of an area and seeing how it has changed over time. A few weeks ago, I came across an old book about the history of March Field. As you can see from the attached photo, in the early/mid 1900s, March field used to be a track and athletic field. Surrounding the field was a thick band of trees, many of which might still remain today.
Lafayette College in 1925
March Field, today.
Although I looked at a bunch of trees, I was particularly interested by the large trees that remain intact behind the DKE house. According to Leafsnap, the bright yellow leaves that I found behind the house are Shingle Oaks. Assuming this is correct, this tree is native to the North America and can be found in PA specifically. It would be pretty cool if the leaf I found was from a tree that is likely over 100 years old!
A Shingle Oak, Found behind the DKE House.
I also snapped a video of the leaves shedding in wind, last week.
Nick, I think it is really cool that your leaf hunt in a way got you working on some story of place. While we considered whether the leaves we identified were native or not, researched some native pests that might go after our native plants, and tried to determine what the leaves on the cover of Walden are, we did not think about how long the trees around us had been around. It is interesting to think that some of the trees on campus have seen another generation of Lafayette students, if not even more. I wonder if any trees that witnessed the founding of Lafayette College are still around? Really awesome that you had this thought, thanks for getting me thinking about this some more!