Hoyt Arboretum
The Hoyt Arboretum (185 acres) is located atop a ridge in the west hills of Portland, Oregon, USA at 45°31′00″N 122°42′58″W / 45.51679°N 122.71600°W. It was founded in 1928 by a collection of timber industry representatives, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Portland Parks department, and enthusiasts.
The arboretum hosts just under ten thousand individual trees and shrubs of more than eleven hundred species from all over the world. Most have labels identifying common and scientific names and region of origin.
The arborteum has twelve miles of trails (two of which are suitable for wheelchairs), a visitor center, an indoor classroom with seating for 40 people, a picnic shelter and a meadow. Volunteer tour guides have been available since the 1970s.
The arboretum is located two miles west of downtown Portland and is in close proximity to Washington Park, the Oregon Zoo, and the International Rose Test Garden. The Arboretum is open to the public and accessible at several points from Washington Park or from the Macleay Trail in Forest Park. The volunteer-staffed visitor's center is located at the center of the park where visitors can find information about the park and its trees; the visitor's center is also the starting point for periodic volunteer-guided tours.
Of note is the Dawn Redwood. One of only a few known deciduous conifers (needle and cone bearing trees that lose their leaves in the winter). The species was once thought extinct and known only in fossils, but was rediscovered in a remote valley in China in the early part of the twentieth century. The tree was reintroduced to the western hemisphere through saplings planted in the Hoyt Arboretum. The trees bear soft, short needles and have a distinctive look in that the branches seem to push out from folds in the trunk.