A Living Laboratory: The Purdue Arboretum—Enhancing the Educational, Research, and Outreach Mission of the University

The Purdue Arboretum currently serves as an important living laboratory and classroom for numerous Purdue courses taught in life science fields like horticulture, urban forestry, plant pathology and entomology and the fine arts like landscape architecture, drawing, and painting. It’s common to see researchers on the campus exploring topics as diverse as plant-insect and pathogen interactions, taxonomy, microclimatology, urban ecology, and environmental sustainability. An important goal of the Purdue Arboretum is to create a world-class outdoor facility that expands teaching effectiveness and increases the opportunity for more useful, high impact scholarship. The Campus Arboretum idea began in 2008 with the goal to recreate the Purdue campus as a living laboratory to enhance learning and discovery and to improve its value as a resource for university engagement. As a public institution, the Purdue Arboretum seeks to serve the people of Indiana by providing a unique collection of plants, gardens, artworks, walking trails, and green spaces that can be used and appreciated by the broadest segment of Indiana’s population. The success of the arboretum depends on significant involvement of faculty, staff, and students from across the campus, as well as individuals, community groups, and private organizations both locally and beyond. Over 36,000 plants are recorded in the current collections organized on an ArcGIS database. The database will contribute to a comprehensive website that when completed, will have a searchable version of the campus-wide map so that plants can be easily located. The mission of the arboretum is to collect and display landscape plants from around the world in a way that enhances the educational, research, and outreach mission of Purdue University, promoting environmental sustainability through example, and increasing the beauty of the campus. The arboretum plans to collect and display the best woody plant selections for use in managed landscapes of Indiana and the greater Midwestern US. Another goal is the creation of interpretive gardens that will accommodate different levels of association and awareness for a diverse group of garden users. The cornerstone garden in this collection is the Horticulture Garden adjacent the Horticulture building. A goal of this garden is to provide state of the art demonstrations and information on the use of traditional and novel plants in a variety of outdoor settings.