This content was published: April 27, 2015. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
Grounds staff label plant life at Rock Creek
Photos and story by Janis Nichols
If you don’t know your Weeping Blue Atlas Cedar from your Weeping Yellow Deodar Cedar, no worries. Help is on the way.
The Grounds Crew at Portland Community College’s Rock Creek Campus is working its way through a project to name approximately 600 varieties of plants, shrubs and trees with labels that will offer the common name and the botanical name of the specimen. College groundskeeper Anne LeSenne said that students, faculty and staff frequently stop to ask her questions about the campus landscaping.
“I realized that we were missing an incredible opportunity to provide passive instruction to anyone who was interested,” she said.
She created an Excel file that lists the names and locations of 543 different plants and then shared the list with the Landscape Technology Program faculty. To date, she has labeled 200 specimens throughout the campus. LeSenne’s project was selected for a TGIF Grant. The funds allowed her to purchase new plants and metal-stake labels. She also provided some labels for the Sylvania and Southeast campuses. The Double File Viburnum and the Chinese Fringe Flowers are ready for their close up Mr. DeMille.
I love this idea, something like this should happen on every campus. I have always had an interest in plant identification and am always curious about what i’m looking at. It enables students to do further research into the botanical uses of the plant and its origins. Way to go!!
This is a really great idea, especially when one considers the environmental classes offered at PCC. It would also be nice if the specimens included identification of native and non-native species. Could be a project for one of the biology/ecology classes.
They used to have those on quite a few of the trees and shrubs around the Rock Creek Campus before they started tearing everything up ten years ago. Nice to see them return!