Tree of the Week: The East Lot Walnut Orchard

New Growth for a New Year

This semester’s first “Tree of the Week” title goes not to one tree, but to an entire grove. The dog run between the art building and the Dojo is shaded by a handful of mature walnut trees, or Juglans regia, the fruits of which are just now beginning to approach maturity as summer deepens into fall. Far from the Pacific Northwest, the native range of Juglans regia stretches from the Balkans to the Himalayas. Clustering into extremely dense forests made up almost entirely of walnut trees in Kyrgyzstan, most notably the region of Arslanbob, these native groves produce over 1,500 tons of walnuts every year, comprising the most prolific single source of naturally occurring walnuts in the world.