Between the river and the steep slope, we have gathered many of eastern North America’s broadleaf species in a place called “Meadow Woodlands”. It’s a spectacular place to wander in the spring, but also in the autumn for the splendor of color. In spring it’s hard to understand how the Silver Maple, Acer saccharinum, got its name, but in autumn when it turns up its silvery-green leaf undersides it’s all obvious. The Latin species name ‘saccharinum‘ means sweet and was given by Linnaeus because he thought this was the species used to produce the tasty maple syrup. However, it is another species, the sugar maple, that is used for this purpose. So when Linnaeus saw this species and had to admit his mistake, it was given the very similar name with the same meaning: ‘saccharum‘.
Another large tree with beautiful autumn colors is the northern red oak, Quercus rubra. The oldest individuals we have of this species have now reached over 15 m. As far as we know, the largest populations of northen red oak and silver maple, as well as american elm, Ulmus americana, and green ash, Fraxinus pensylvanica, can be found in northern Sweden and the largest specimens in the deciduous meadows here in eastern North America in Arboretet i Baggböle..
Just like in real life, the eastern and western North America of the arboretum is divided into large grasslands. In our case, the annually mowed meadow is acting the North American prairies.