Prospect Park

The camperdown elm at Prospect Park was a gift from Mr. A. Burgess in 1872 and was one of the first camperdown elms propagated in the United States. It is celebrated in a poem by the great Brooklyn poet Marianne Moore. The camperdown elm originated on the state of the Earl of Camperdown, near Dundee, Scotland and was introduced to the market in 1850.

The American hornbeam is located across from the camperdown elm in Prospect Park. It is a native species, known for its distinctive blue-grey limbs, wich are sinewy and smooth and twist and swell like muscular arms.

Native to Eastern Asia, this tree was once planted at the graves of Japanese scholars. It is a successful street tree in cities because of its tolerance of soil compaction and temperature extremes. It has a delicate, feathery foliage with attractive clusters of white flowers that bloom early in the fall.

The English elm located along the west drive of Prospect Park, north of the Garfield entrance, has multiple trunks. Its notable form shows just how this introduced species differs in shape from the more vase-shaped American elm.