The cluster of conifers at the intersection of Botsford Drive and S.E. 28th could be called the “Christmas Tree grove.” Many of the trees are former live Christmas trees that were planted in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s by Biology professor Bert Brehm and others. The grouping of young trees provides a perfect home for spiders and the area is filled with webs in the summer.
In designing the new west parking lot in the 1990’s, Reed managed to protect some of the old Douglas firs along Botsford Drive (in the NW corner of the map). Most of the other trees in this area have been planted more recently following the completion of the parking lot and the construction of Kaul Auditorium.
The three London plane trees on the north side of the sports center all rise vertically for about 20 feet and then angle sharply to the south, like British footmen bowing stiffly from the waist. The bend is presumably due to a phototropic effect that prompted the trees to change their growth once they had climbed out of the shadow from the sports center.
Many of the trees located at the bottom of the west parking lot are fairly small, as they were planted in the 1990’s.
Tthe area along S.E. 28th avenue, across the street from the Rhododendron Gardens, includes an impressive line of five older giant sequoias, and the college has doubled that line by planting five more.
The very southwest corner of the campus includes one of only two American sycamores on the Reed campus. It’s also the only place on campus where you can compare the three most common species of cedar: Cedrus deodara, Cedrus libani, and Cedrus atlantica.
Just across the street on the Eastmoreland golf course at the intersection of S.E. 28th and Woodstock, you can find a large yellowwood tree (Cladrastis kentukea) that has been designated as a Portland Heritage Tree.