High Plains Arboretum Plants

"When your garden is finished,

I hope it will be more beautiful

than you anticipated,

require less care that you had expected,

and have cost only a little more

than you had planned."
-Thomas D. Church  

Back to High Plains Arboretum  |  Cross referenced plants 1994

The Legacy of the Cheyenne Horticultural Field Station-
Some Notable Plants Developed at the Station:

• The development of cold hardy strawberries (Ft. Laramie and Ogallala), both of which are still widely sold throughout the Rocky Mountain region.

• The release of cold hardy raspberry varieties that bear mainly on first-year wood, thus there was no need to worry about winter desiccation and survival of 1st year canes (most raspberries only set fruit on 2nd year old canes which requires they survive a winter).

• Researched the Guayule plant as a possible source of rubber during World War II.

• Tested over 800 different varieties of apple trees. When asked about this research, Howard commented, "We harvested 105,000 pounds of apples in 1958, now that's a lot of apples."

• There was also testing of crabapples, plums, pears and sour cherries.

• Tested apple stocks resistant to chlorosis in alkaline soils.

• Surveyed a number of edible native fruits and determined their vitamin C content.

• Discovered, adapted suitable currants, gooseberries, sour cherries and domestic plums.

• Over 45 introductions of the “Cheyenne Hardy Mum series” were developed (most were named after historic Wyoming people and places). Gene Howard said, “The Station had over two acres of mums in full bloom on or around September 20th. Thousands of people would turn out each year during our open house just to see those mums.”

• Researched and released varieties of garden phlox, geraniums, pumpkins, tomatoes, raspberries and carnations.

• Released the “Pink Lady Euonymus,” a shrub bearing striking yellowish leaves, pink stems and bright red berries. Pink Lady was collected in the late 1920’s by USDA staffer, P.H. Dorsett, from a stone wall of a canal surrounding the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, China.

• From a Balkans Expedition in Sarajevo, Bosnia, the Station released the Cheyenne Privet.
  Tested potato, tomato and root crops along with frost hardy crops such as beets, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, kale, parsnips, turnips and more.

By 1962 the Station had tested:

• 1,300 varieties of woody ornamental plants including over 100 different types of hedge
  materials

• 200 species of trees and shrubs for dry land wind breaks with over 250 cooperative
  plantings in various parts of the region served by the station.

• 2000 fruit varieties

• 8,000 vegetable varieties

ORNAMENTAL PLANTINGS CROSS REFERENCED JANUARY 30, 1994
By SCOTT T. SKOGERBOE

Located in Cheyenne, Wyoming is the former USDA Horticultural Field Station; now known as the High Plains Grasslands Research Station. The horticulture station was closed in 1974 after 46 years of operation and converted over into a USDA grasslands research station. The plots, which held the ornamental trees and shrubs, still exist today. Many of the species surviving are extremely rare and may not exist elsewhere in the country. Personnel from the grasslands station maintain the plots to the best of their ability despite their change in mission and budged cutbacks in the past and present. Even with their best effort, under the circumstances, the number of species in the plantings is dwindling at an alarming rate. An inventory taken in 1974 showed a total of 851 different accessions. The last inventory was taken in 1987 and only 450 accessions survived. In a space of 13 years, 47% had perished. Without counting, one can only guess at how many survive today. Recently the plants in the former horticultural Field station have been re-named the "High Plains Arboretum."

A part of our agricultural heritage exists in those plots and it is silently passing away. The purpose of this paper is to find out as much as possible about the trees and shrubs growing quietly in those fields and thus discover that they are not just branches and leaves, some with names unfamiliar, but plants with history; each one with a different story to tell. The following is a list of these plants. Note the PI # is the abbreviation for the "plant introduction" number the plant was given when it was accessed into the collection at the USDA Horticultural Field Station.

Acer ginnala. Amur Maple. PI # 98908. From China. Seed purchased from L. Ptitsin of Harbin, Manchuria. Received Dec. 23, 1931. Numbered in April 1932. A shrub or small tree up to 25 ft. high, native to northeastern Asia, with lustrous dark-green three-lobed serrate leaves, long stalked panicles of yellowish flowers and winged fruit, which are conspicuously red during the summer. The leaves turn bright red in autumn. Cheyenne # A3316. Planted 1933.

Caragana pekinensis. Peking Peashrub. PI # 90341. From Chihli Province, China. Seeds collected by P. H. Dorsett and W.J. Morse, agricultural explorers, Bureau of Plant Industry. Received Nov. 1930. Sent as Caragana sp. # 7288. From the mountainside near Cheih Tai Ssu Temple, Sept. 28, 1930. "A shrubby thorny plant with small leaves and small rather long seed pods. This would probably make a good hedge plant". Cheyenne # A32342. Planted 1932.

Cotoneaster intergerimma. PI # 113095. From China. Seeds collected in Suiyuan Province by the Asiatic expedition. Received Nov. 1934. Numbers 113095 to 113100 were collected at Batu Khalkha. Cheyenne # A39228. Planted 1939.

Cotoneaster sp. PI # 113096. See C. integerimma. Cheyenne # A51381. Sent from North Dakota. Planted 1951.

Cotoneaster sp. PI # 113097. See C. intergerimma. Cheyenne # A51382. Sent from North Dakota. Planted 1951.

Crataegus ambigua. PI # 30294. Introduced from Paris, France in March 1911. Presented by the Natural History Museum. Collected in the vicinity of Sarepta in the Volga River Valley of S. E. Russia. Cheyenne # A31709. Planted 1931.

Crataegus durobrivensis. PI # 130958. Plants sent from the U.S. Plant Introduction Garden in Chico, California. Numbered Nov. 23, 1938. Originally received as seed from the Royal Botanical Garden, Kew, England. A shrub up to 18 ft high, with ovate leaves and many large showy flowers in compact corymbs. Native to the Northeaster U.S. Cheyenne # A51343. Planted 1951.

Crataegus lauta. PI # 39585. Presented by the Arnold Aboretum of Jamaica Plains, Mass. in December 1914. Alfred Rehder of the Arnold writes, "A spiny arborescent shrub, allied to C. ellwangeriana, with ovid fruit bright orange-red, ¾" long. Much planted in Boston parks, but of unknown origin". Cheyenne # A36313. Planted 1936.

Eleagnus angustifolia. Russian Olive. PI # 99360; 99361; 99362; 99370. From the USSR. Seeds collected by V. Gorbunova in Asia Minor and presented to Dr. V.P. Alekseev, chief, Bureau of Introductions, Institute of Plant Introductions, Leningrad. Received May 4, 1932. The first 3 collected from near the Chirchik River. The last from Zaravshan. Cheyenne # 321227; 3321228; 321229 and 321237 respectively. Planted 1932.

Euonymus Bungeanus. ‘Pink Lady’. Pink lady Winterberry Euonymus. PI # 62418. Cultivar selected by the Soil Conservation Service Plant Materials Center in New Mexico. However, originally from China. Seeds collected by P.H. Dorsett, agricultural explorer. Received Jan. 5, 1925. Notes by Dorsett. "Number 1134. Peking. November 1, 1924. A fine looking specimen of Euonymus growing out of a stone wall of a canal about one of the buildings in the Temple of Heaven grounds. The yellowish green leaves with pink stems and bright red berries with yellowish arils make a remarkably fine showing." Cheyenne # A38529. Planted 1938.

Euonymus hamiltonianus. PI # 57281. From Echo, Tiehlingho, Manchuria, China. Seeds presented by A.D. Woeikoff, director experimental farm. Received June 21, 1923. A large Himalayan shrub, which under favorable circumstances becomes a moderately sized tree 30 to 35 ft high, with a short strait trunk 4 to 5 ft in girth. The clusters of 15 to 30 greenish white flowers are followed by yellow capsules of seed of which they are surrounded by a scarlet aril. The fruits ripen from August onward. The leaves are brilliantly colored in fall. The wood is beautifully white, compact and close, not very hard and is used for making spoons. The young shoots are lopped for fodder. Cheyenne # A42204. Planted 1942.

Ligustrum acutissimum. PI # 77703. From the Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Plains, Mass. Collected by Paul Russell of the Bureau of Plant Industry. Received Nov. 1928. Russell writes, "Arboretum # 14973-1. Seeds of a much branched shrub 10 feet or less high, with spreading and curving branches and very narrow sharply pointed leaves about 2" long. This privet is native to Japan and China". Cheyenne # A31739. Planted 1931.

Ligustrum vulgare. ‘Cheyenne’. PI # 107630. Cultivar selected and released by the Cheyenne Station. However, originally collected by Dr. Edgar Anderson of the Arnold Arboretum during their Balkans expedition in Dec. 1934. Seed collected from Sarajevo, Bosnia. Anderson notes seed was collected from plants growing in unusually dry, cold situations. Cheyenne # A37178. Planted 1937.

Malus sylvestris. ‘Haugmann’. PI # 101882. From Norway. Scions presented by Dr. P. Stedje, director Statens Foesoksstasjon for Fruktdyrkning, Njos, Songnefjord. Received Jan. 30, 1933. ‘Haugmann’ described with skin, greenish yellow covered with carmine red stripes and spots on the exposed side. Good cooking and dessert apple. Season Oct. to Christmas. Cheyenne # A34626. Planted 1934.

Malus transitoria. PI # 54092. From the Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Plains, Mass. Seeds collected by H.C. Skeels of the Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction for use in breeding experiments by experts of the USDA. Numbered Sept. 1921. Notes by Mr. Skeels. (Called Malus transitoria toringoides. Rehder by Skeels.) Arboretum # 7186. "A tree 16 to 26 feet high native to western Szechwan, China, at altitudes of 9,000 to 12,000 feet, with felted twigs. The leaves 2 inches long are more entire and the scarlet and yellow fruits are larger than in M. transitoria". Cheyenne # A51383. Planted 1951.

Malus sp. ‘Athabasca’. PI # 128399. From Canada. A collection of hybrid crab apples presented by M.B. Davis, Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, Ontario. Received April 18, 1938. Cheyenne # A38672. Planted 1938.

Malus sp. ‘Chilko’. PI # 128402. See above. Cheyenne # A38675. Planted 1938.

Malus sp. ‘Cowichon’. PI # 128403. See above. Sent earlier than official introduction from the Morden station in Manitoba. Cheyenne # A36757. Planted 1936.

Malus sp. ‘Harriman’. PI # 128405. See ‘Athabasca’ Cheyenne # A38678. Planted 1938.

Malus sp. ‘Louise’. PI # 128407. See above. Cheyenne # A38680. Planted 1938.

Malus sp. ‘Nameu’. PI # 128409. See above. Cheyenne # A38683. Planted 1938.

Malus sp. ‘Scugog’. PI # 128412. See above. Cheyenne # A38685. Planted 1938.

Malus sp. ‘Simcoe’. PI # 128416. Interestingly, called a Pyrus x ‘Sissipuk’ cross. Inspection by writer reveals similarities with Malus. Cheyenne "# A38689. Planted 1938.

Malus sp. ‘Sissipuk’. PI # 128417. Called Pyrus in PI book. Cheyenne # A38690. Planted 1938.

Malus sp. ‘Small Red Crab’. PI # 72107. From China. Collected by P.H. Dorsett, agricultural explorer for the USDA. Received January 1927. Scions collected at the Fa Hua Ssu Temple near Haitzu, Chihli Province in Nov. 1926. Dorsett writes, "No. 8819 ‘Hung hai tung’. Red small crab apple. The fruits are one-half to three-fourths of an inch in diameter and ripen the middle of August." Cheyenne # A33985. Planted 1933.

Philadelphus lemoinei. ‘Girondole’. PI # 78094. From Orleans, France. Plants purchased from E. Turbat & Co. Received Nov. 17, 1928. Double white flowers. Cheyenne # A54123. Planted 1954.

Philadelphus virginalis. ‘Albatre’. PI # 78085. See above. Very floriferous; pure-white flowers on gracefully arching stems. Cheyenne # A34713. Planted 1934.

Philadelphus sp. ‘Glacier’. PI # 78095. See above. Double white flowers in erect compact clusters, borne on stout erect stems. Cheyenne # A72127. Planted 1972.

Prunus x fontanesiana. PI # 133842. From Russia. Station records reveal this tree acquired prior to official USDA introduction. Officially introduced by Alfred Rehder of the Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Plains, Mass. Received 1939. A hybrid between Prunus avium x Prunus mahaleb. An ornamental cherry resembling Prunus avium, with slightly pubescent branches, smaller and broader leaves less than 4 inches long, often rounded and subcordate a the base; flowers less than an inch across, and small dark-red somewhat bitter fruits. Deceased at Cheyenne. Planted in 1936 and died sometime between 1977 and 1987. Propagated and planted at the Colorado State University P.E.R.C. Arboretum in 1978.

Prunus sibirica. Siberian Apricot. PI # 76744. From Harbin, Manchuria. Seeds presented by A.A. Rachkowsky, Manchurian Research Society. Received April 17, 1928. A bushy shrub or sometimes a small tree up to 15 feet high, native to Siberia. The long acuminate-ovate leaves are 2 to 3 inches long and reddish when young, turning bright green; the solitary white or pink flowers are an inch across, and the fruits are yellow with a red cheek but have very little flesh and are hardly edible. Cheyenne # A31741. Planted 1931.

Prunus tenella. PI # 95444. Russian Almond. From Brooks, Alberta, Canada. Seed collected by Knowles A. Ryerson, Bureau of Plant Industry. Received October 25, 1928. Numbered in December, 1931. Called Amygdalus nana in PI book. An Almond introduced for trial in the Great Plains region. A bush about 5 feet high, native to Russia and western Asia, with thick stiff sharply toothed leaves and solitary pink flowers. The small hard hairy fruit contains a large pit of bitter flavor. This almond is probably hardy throughout the northern U.S. Cheyenne # A32344. Planted 1932.

Rhamnus sp. PI # 82160. From Korea (Then called Chosen). Collected by P.H. Dorsett and W.J. Morse, agricultural explorers. Received December 1929. Seeds from small spiny shrubs in a river bottom near the Keijo seed and nursery farm outside the east gate, Keijo November 1, 1929. Cheyenne # A31702. Planted 1931.

Rhamnus davurica. Dahurian Buckthorn. PI # 69889. From Manchuria. Collected by I.V. Kosloff of the Manchurian Research Society, Harbin. Presented to P.H. Dorsett of the Bureau of Plant Industry, November 17, 1926. "No. 6753. September 28, 1926. Vicinity of Ertsendiantsy. A large hardy spreading shrub or small tree up to 30 feed high, with long oblong leaves 2 to 4 inches long, greenish flowers and black berries about 3/8 of in inch in diameter. Native to northeastern Asia". Cheyenne # A51385. Sent from North Dakota. Planted in 1951.

Rhamnus saxatilis. Rock Buckthorn. PI # 107641. From Bulgaria. Collected on the Balkans expedition by Dr. Edgar Anderson of the Arnold Arboretum. Received December 19, 1934. A low dense, very spiny shrub about 3 feet high, native to the mountainous regions in central Europe and western Asia. From seed collected in an unusually cold, dry region. For trial throughout the northern states. *Specimen at Cheyenne an attractive small tree, not matching the low growing description, a probable hybrid. Cheyenne # A36727. Planted 1936.

Syringa oblata. ‘Cheyenne’. Cheyenne Early Lilac. PI # 90671. Cultvar selected and released from the Cheyenne station. From Manchuria. Seed collected by P.H. Dorsett and W.J. Morse, agricultural explorers. Received in U.S. December 18, 1930. Received from the forestry department Yugakujo Agricultural Experiment Station (South Manchurian Railway), Hsiungyaocheng, Yugakujo, Manchuria, November 17, 1930. No. 6513. A tree lilac, found in masses on rocky mountain slopes between 3,000 and 6,000 feet altitude. Of value as stock for standard lilacs and for hybridization purposes. *Specimen at Cheyenne, not tree form, and in fact, is a prolific suckering 6 to 8 ft shrub, noted for attractive purplish-red fall color. Cheyenne # A32344. Planted 1932.

Syringa oblata. PI # 90672. Collected from Manchuria. See above. No. 6511. A loosely ranched shrub, up to 12 feet high, with ovate, long pointed leaves 6 inches long and loose clusters of pale purple-lilac flowers. Native to China. Cheyenne # A32348. Planted 1932.

Syringa oblata dilatata. PI # 82486. From Korea (Then called Chosen). Seeds presented by T. Watanaba, forest experiment station, Keijo. Received December 26, 1929. From Heizan. A loosely branched shrub up to 12 feet high with oval, long pointed leaves 6 inches long, and loose clusters of pale purple-lilac flowers. Native to Chosen. Cheyenne # A31705. Planted 1931.

References:

United States Department of Agriculture. Inventory of Seeds and Plants Imported. Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office. From 1897 to present. (Order by date of introduction or by PI #).

Howard, Gene S. and Marilyn J. Samuel. A List of Ornamental Plants Under Test at the Cheyenne Horticultural Field Station, Cheyenne Wyoming. January 1974.

Fairchild, D.H. and J.E. Klett. Woody Landscape Plants for the High Plains. Colorado State University. Technical Bulletin LTB93-1. June 1993.

SCOTT T. SKOGERBOE is the head propagator at Fort Collins Nursery Wholesale in Fort Collins, Colorado. In addition, he has been actively working with the the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens on the High Plains Arboretum.