Emergent Plant Series: #4, Pioneer Tree Stage (3.19488)

Date: 1950s
Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Part of a series of numbered illustrations about the stages of pond growth. This material includes an aerial view of a pond showing trees and plants at its edges and bays with additional trees and hills in the background, and a cross-section view of aquatic plants attached to pond bottom, with leaves and flowers of shallower plants extended up to and above the water's surface.

Header: PIONEER TREE STAGE / WILLOWS ARE FIRST

Drawings and text from top to bottom, left to right:

• pond and surrounding landscape
• cross-section [divided into 4 sections]:
  • Tree Zone
    • willow
    • silver maple
  • Emergent plant one
  • Floating leaf zone
  • Submerged plant zone

Extent: 1 sheet

Emergent Plant Series: #6, Climax Forest Stage (3.19490)

Date: 1950s
Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Part of a series of numbered illustrations about the stages of pond growth. This material includes a view of a pond in the center with forest trees and hills in the background, and a cross-section of illustrations of forest trees, and trees and emergent plants of the water's edge.

Header: CLIMAX FOREST STAGE / THE PERMAMENT FOREST of the REGION

Drawings and text from top to bottom, left to right:

• pond and surrounding landscape
• cross-section [divided into 7 sections]:
  • CLIMAX FOREST
    • red oak
    • white oak 
    • hickory
  • LOWLAND FOREST ZONE
    • elm
    • ash
    • hackberry
    • linden
  • PIONEER TREE ZONE
    • willow
    • silver maple
  • EMERGENT ZONE
    • cat-tails
    • arrowhead
    • bur reed
    • pickerel weed
    • bull-rush
  • PIONEER TREE ZONE
  • LOWLAND FOREST ZONE
  • CLIMAX FOREST

Extent: 1 sheet

Growth of Pond: Pioneer Tree Stage (3.19495)

Date: 1940 – 1950
Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Part of a series of illustrations about the stages of pond growth. This material includes an aerial view of a pond with trees and plants showing at its edges and bays, and an illustration of a tree and cross-section view of aquatic plants attached to pond bottom, with leaves and flowers of shallower plants extended up to and above the water's surface.

Header: PIONEER TREE STAGE / WILLOWS ARE FIRST TO ARRIVE

Drawings and text from top to bottom, left to right:

• Pond
• [divided into 4 sections]:
  • TREE ZONE
    • willows
    • silver maples
  • EMERGENT PLANT ZONE
  • FLOATING-LEAVED ZONE
  • SUMERGED PLANT ZONE

Extent: 1 sheet

Winter Buds, #1 (3.19511)

Date: 1940 – 1950
Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Large poster depicting 16 types of winter buds, bound in green tape.

Illustrations and text, from left to right, top to bottom:

• white ash
• black ash
• blue ash
• red ash
• sugar maple
• Norway maple
• silver maple
• box-elder
• horse-chestnut
• ohio buckeye
• flowering dogwood
• catalpa
• ironwood
• gray birch
• European white birch
• European alder

Extent: 1 sheet

Trees with Flowers Borne in Clusters (3.24608)

Date: 1944
Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Illustrations depicting four groups of staminate and pistillate flowers with associated outline of six trees, created to accompany "The Flowers Nobody Knows" article featured in Morton Arboretum Bulletin of Popular Information. Descriptive text identifies coloring, anatomy, and bloom time. 

Header: Trees with Flowers Borne in Clusters

Illustrations are separated into four sections, from top to bottom:

Section 1: Pistillate and Staminate Flowers on Different Trees

(depicted from left to right)

• White ash -- Fraxinus americana
• Box-elder -- Acer negundo

Section 2: Pistillate and Staminate Flowers in separate clusters on same tree, or in same cluster, or on different trees 

(depicted from left to right)

• Sugar maple -- Acer saccharum
• Silver maple -- Acer saccharinum

Section 3: Flowers borne in spherical heads

• Sycamore -- Platanus occidentalis

Section 4: Flowers contain both pistil and stamens

• American elm -- Ulmus americana 

Extent: 1 sheet

Our Native Maples (3.24611)

Date: 1944
Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Illustrations of four species of maple, created to accompany "The Maples of The Morton Arboretum" article featured in Morton Arboretum Bulletin of Popular Information. Drawings show tree shape, including top, twigs, branches, size, winged seeds, and leaves. Descriptive text gives details of tree structure (branching, bark, and trunk), habitat, seed ripening schedule, and leaf details including color and sinus structure. Red maple seeds illustration is a cut out piece glued in place.

Illustrations depicted from top to bottom, left to right:

• Sugar maple -- Acer saccharum
  • tree - round top; dark smooth on young branches; right-angled branching; sap-sucker holes; stone-gray bark with thick plates loose along one edge; upland
  • seeds - ripe in September-October
  • leaf - smooth, thin, yellow in Fall
• Silver maple -- Acer saccharinum
  • tree - broad top; smooth gray young branches; branches bend downward with tips turning upward; long loose scales on bark; trunk often divides near ground; lowland
  • seeds - ripe in May
  • leaf - silvery beneath; acute, deep sinuses
• Red maple -- Acer rubrum  
  • tree - pale gray upper branches; red twigs; dark gray bark; swamp, river-bottom, upland
  • seeds - ripe in May-June
  • leaf - silvery beneath, V-shaped sinuses, scarlet in Fall
• Box-elder -- Acer negundo
  • tree - small tree; bushy spreading top, purplish twigs, bark with narrow shallow ridges; river bottoms
  • seeds - ripe in summer; hangs on a winter
  • leaf - prominent veins; 3 to 7 leaflets

Extent: 1 sheet

Winter Twigs, page 2 (3.24631)

Date: 1943
Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Page 2 of 4, illustrations showing identifying characteristics of different types of winter twigs, created to accompany "Winter Twigs" article featured in Morton Arboretum Bulletin of Popular Information.  Original identifying text has detached and is mostly missing.

Illustrations are divided into two sections, depicted from top to bottom, left to right:

1) [Original text] TREES WITH OPPOSITE BRANCHING

• White ash -- Fraxinus americana
• Black ash -- Fraxinus nigra
• Blue ash -- Fraxinus quadrangulata
• Red ash -- Fraxinus pennsylvanica
• Sugar maple -- Acer saccharum
• Norway maple -- Acer platanoides
• Red maple -- Acer rubrum
• Silver maple -- Acer saccharinum
• Box-elder -- Acer negundo
• Horse-chestnut -- Aesculus hippocastanum
• Ohio buckeye -- Aesculus glabra
• Flowering dogwood -- Cornus florida
• Catalpa -- Catalpa speciosa  [and] Catalpa bignonioides

2) [Original text] TREES WITH CATKINS PRESENT IN WINTER 

• Ironwood -- Ostrya virginiana
• Gray birch -- Betula populifolia
• [as a single illustration:]
  • Yellow birch -- Betula lutea
  • River birch -- Betula nigra
  • Cherry birch -- Betula lenta
  • Paper birch -- Betula papyrifera
  • European white birch -- Betula pendula
• European alder -- Alnus glutinosa

Some terms and text originally adhered to board have detached and are housed with art.
Extent: 1 sheet

Landscape with Houses and Trees (3.24647)

Date: 20th century
Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:Illustration of a hilly landscape with five houses, pasture, fences, farm land, a lake, a stream, a bridge, roads, a water wheel, and many trees. Trees are drawn to indicate general shape and each tree is identified. NATURE STUDY GUILD is stamped in purple on piece of board and glued at top right. 

Trees depicted:

White pine -- Spruce -- Austrian pine -- Pear -- Sassafras -- Sumac -- Black willows -- Box elder -- 
Apple -- Red cedar -- Norway pine -- Yellow birch -- Black walnut -- Sour gum -- White cedar -- Poison sumac -- Tamarack -- White ash -- Chestnut oak -- Blue ash -- Red oak -- Beech -- Shagbark hickory -- Mockernut hickory -- Red maple -- Pignut hickory -- Wafer ash -- River birch -- Buckeye -- 
Shingle oak -- Bur oak -- Linden -- Cherry birch -- Shadbush -- Hill's oak -- White oak -- Sugar maple -- Black locust -- Black cherry -- Large-toothed poplar -- Cottonwood -- Waahoo -- Trembling aspen -- Witch-hazel -- Flowering dogwood -- Ironwood -- Chestnut -- Pin cherry -- Choke cherry -- Wild crab -- Wild plum -- Redbud -- Water beech -- Balm of Gilead -- Red mulberry -- Tulip tree -- Sycamore -- Bitternut hickory -- Slippery elm -- Butternut -- Swamp white -- Kentucky coffee tree -- Red ash -- Honey locust -- Hawthorne -- Lombardy poplars -- European alder -- Black ash -- Osage orange hedge -- Ailanthus -- Paw-paw -- Hackberry -- White birch -- American elm -- Catalpa -- Norway maple -- Weeping willow -- White wilow -- Pin oak -- Horse chestnut -- Mountian ash -- Pussy willow -- Fir -- Ginkgo -- Silver maple -- Scotch pine -- Silver poplar
Extent: 1 sheet

Leaf Prints: Silver Maple (3.27711)

Date: circa 1950
Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Print
Description:A white negative nature print of silver maple, or soft maple, leaves and stems on a dark background with identifying text at bottom right handwritten by May T. Watts.

Identifying text:

• Maple soft
• Acer saccharinum

Extent: 1 sheet

Tree Portraits: Silver Maple (3.31831)

Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Painting
Description:Color silhouette of a silver maple tree, including a nature print outline of a leaf. Tape adhered to bottom left corner indicates assigned letter.

Descriptive text in bottom left:

• i

Extent: 1 sheet

Trees Native To This Region (3.33823)

Creator: Watts, May Theilgaard
Type: Drawing
Description:A large illustration depicting a cross-section of hill with several types of trees growing down its slope. The trees are drawn in silhouette and are grouped into four categories based on location. Each tree is also accompanied by a line of color across the top indicating the color of its leaves in Fall as well as an outline of its leaf below.

Header: 

• TREES NATIVE TO THIS REGION

Additional text, at bottom left:

• THE COLOR LINE OVER EACH TREE / INDICATES ITS CHARACTERISTIC / FALL COLORING. NATIVE TREES / GIVE US THE BEST COLOR

Types of trees depicted:

• TREES OF OUR UPLANDS
  • witch-hazel -- white oak -- red oak -- Hill's oak -- sugar maple -- ironwood -- shadbush -- shagbark hickory -- black cherry -- blue ash -- bur oak -- white ash -- linden
• TREES of the EDGE of the FOREST
  • aspen -- sumac -- choke cherry -- wild crabapple -- hawthorn -- wild plum
• TREES of our LOWLANDS
  • black ash -- slippery elm -- American elm -- walnut -- hackberry -- cottonwood -- black willow -- silver maple
• TREES of our SWAMPS
  • [sour gum] tupelo -- yellow birch -- tamarack -- red maple -- poison sumac

Extent: 1 sheet

Students in a Junior Forestry class, posing with a leaf chart (3.34126)

Type: Photographic image
Description:School children participate in a Junior Forestry class with May T. Watts at the Morton Arboretum. A girl and a boy hold a leaf chart that features oak, maple, and sumac leaves.
Extent: 1 slide

Education charts: Twigs, #2 (3.34234)

Type: Photographic image
Description:An educational chart created by May T. Watts for The Morton Arboretum, depicting 16 types of winter buds on twigs. The chart appears to be tacked to a display board in a classroom.

Illustrations and text, from left to right, top to bottom:

• white ash
• black ash
• blue ash
• red ash
• sugar maple
• Norway maple
• silver maple
• box-elder
• horse-chestnut
• ohio buckeye
• flowering dogwood
• catalpa
• ironwood
• gray birch
• European white birch
• European alder

 
Extent: 1 slide

Acer saccharinum (silver_maple), along Lake Marmo with persistent color (3.37263)

Date: November 1965
Type: Photographic image
Description:Acer saccharinum (silver_maple), along Lake Marmo lakefront showing persistent fall color with reflections showing in the water
Extent: 1 slide

Acer saccharinum (silver maple), summer (3.37883)

Date: June 1971
Creator: Kohout, Kitty
Type: Photographic image
Description:Acer saccharinum (silver maple), large tree with broad, irregular habit and dense green foliage in the summer
Extent: 1 slide

Acer saccharinum (silver maple), spring (3.37886)

Date: May 1977
Creator: Kohout, Kitty
Type: Photographic image
Description:Acer saccharinum (silver maple), large tree with mostly bare branches showing flowers beginning to bud in early spring
Extent: 1 slide

Acer saccharinum (silver maple), winter (3.37890)

Date: March 1972
Creator: Kohout, Kitty
Type: Photographic image
Description:Acer saccharinum (silver maple), view of completely bare branches and twigs in winter, bark is pale silvery gray
Extent: 1 slide

Acer saccharinum (silver maple), spring (3.37891)

Date: March 1979
Creator: Kohout, Kitty
Type: Photographic image
Description:Acer saccharinum (silver maple), tree along the bank of a body of water with bright green foliage
Extent: 1 slide

Acer saccharinum (silver maple), winter, habit (3.37893)

Date: December 1981
Creator: Kohout, John
Type: Photographic image
Description:Acer saccharinum (silver maple), full view of tall tree with completely bare branches in winter, tree is situated in the parkway of a residential area near the street with a house in the background
Extent: 1 slide

Acer saccharinum (silver maple), spring (3.37894)

Date: April 1983
Creator: Kohout, Kitty
Type: Photographic image
Description:Acer saccharinum (silver maple), partial view of tree with bare branches in early spring with buds beginning to develop on twigs, tree is situated near a path with other trees in the background
Extent: 1 slide

Acer saccharinum (silver maple), tree stump (3.37895)

Date: September 1973
Creator: Stickney, William S.
Type: Photographic image
Description:Acer saccharinum (silver maple), tree stump with multiple stems sprouting from base of the tree, and branches covered with green foliage, located near Arboretum's Willow Collection
Extent: 1 slide

Acer saccharinum (silver maple), tree stump (3.37897)

Date: September 1973
Creator: Stickney, William S.
Type: Photographic image
Description:Acer saccharinum (silver maple), tree stump with multiple stems sprouting from base of the tree, and branches covered with green foliage, located near Arboretum's Willow Collection
Extent: 1 slide

Acer saccharinum (silver maple), habit (3.37898)

Date: August 1973
Creator: Stickney, William S.
Type: Photographic image
Description:Acer saccharinum (silver maple), full view of large tree in summer with broad crown and green foliage situated on grassy grounds near other trees

Living Collections Accession Number: 1332-36*1
Location on grounds using The Morton Arboretum grid map: S-100/55-20 (Acer Collection)
Extent: 1 slide

Acer saccharinum (silver maple), branches hanging over river (3.37900)

Date: March 1977
Type: Photographic image
Description:Acer saccharinum (silver maple), DuPage River seen through the branches of a silver maple tree in early spring, branches are mostly bare except for buds developing on twigs
Extent: 1 slide

Acer saccharinum (silver maple), twig and bark (3.37902)

Date: May 1977
Creator: Kohout, Kitty
Type: Photographic image
Description:Acer saccharinum (silver maple), split image, the top image shows a closeup of the tip of a twig with buds; the bottom image shows a closeup of pale silvery gray bark, presumably on a younger tree
Extent: 1 slide

Acer saccharinum (silver maple), twig and buds, spring (3.37903)

Date: March 1979
Creator: Kohout, Kitty
Type: Photographic image
Description:Acer saccharinum (silver maple), closeup detail of the tip of a single twig with reddish buds in early spring
Extent: 1 slide

Acer saccharinum (silver maple), female flowers (3.37904)

Date: December 1972
Creator: Reynolds, P. J.
Type: Photographic image
Description:Acer saccharinum (silver maple), closeup detail of early female flowers budding on single twig, set against a black backdrop
Extent: 1 slide

Acer saccharinum (silver maple), male flowers (3.37905)

Date: December 1972
Creator: Reynolds, P. J.
Type: Photographic image
Description:Acer saccharinum (silver maple), closeup detail of male flowers budding from the tip of a single twig, set against black backdrop
Extent: 1 slide

Acer saccharinum (silver maple), female flowers (3.37907)

Date: April 1977
Creator: Stickney, William S.
Type: Photographic image
Description:Acer saccharinum (silver maple), closeup detail of female flowers budding on single twig, set against a black backdrop
Extent: 1 slide

Acer saccharinum (silver maple), female flowers and buds (3.37908)

Date: April 1977
Creator: Stickney, William S.
Type: Photographic image
Description:Acer saccharinum (silver maple), closeup detail of female flowers budding on single twig, set against a green backdrop
Extent: 1 slide

Acer saccharinum (silver maple), twig and flowers (3.37909)

Date: March 1981
Type: Photographic image
Description:Acer saccharinum (silver maple), closeup detail of twig with flowers just emerging from buds set against blue backdrop
Extent: 1 slide

Acer saccharinum (silver maple), male flowers (3.37910)

Date: April 1977
Creator: Stickney, William S.
Type: Photographic image
Description:Acer saccharinum (silver maple), extreme closeup detail of staminate (male) flowers emerging from buds set against black backdrop
Extent: 1 slide

Acer saccharinum (silver maple), fruit (3.37911)

Date: December 1972
Creator: Reynolds, P. J.
Type: Photographic image
Description:Acer saccharinum (silver maple), closeup detail of a single green and pinkish samara, the typical winged fruit of maples, set against black backdrop
Extent: 1 slide

Acer saccharinum (silver maple), fruit and leaves (3.37912)

Date: March 1979
Creator: Kohout, Kitty
Type: Photographic image
Description:Acer saccharinum (silver maple), closeup of bright pale green samaras, typical winged fruit of maples, hanging from twig with leaves
Extent: 1 slide

Acer saccharinum (silver maple), fallen fruit (3.37913)

Date: May 1985
Creator: Kohout, Kitty
Type: Photographic image
Description:Acer saccharinum (silver maple), fallen yellowish green winged samara fruit clusters that have accumulated in the grass
Extent: 1 slide

Acer saccharinum (silver maple), seedling (3.37914)

Date: June 1969
Creator: Kohout, Kitty
Type: Photographic image
Description:Acer saccharinum (silver maple), closeup detail of seedling in sand
Extent: 1 slide