The American Elm at the East 97th Street Entrance not documented, dates to the 1800s
American Elm (Ulmus americana). Most of New York's elms are gone.
Ancient Trees in Central Park
Central Park opened in 1858 on land that had no old trees at all: the ground was swamp, rock and scattered farms before Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux's Greensward Plan turned 843 acres of Manhattan into the park now walked by tens of millions of people a year.
Everything standing today was planted, which makes its oldest survivors a record of what the park's own gardeners chose a century and a half ago, not what nature left behind. Two of these seven trees are American elms from the Mall's Literary Walk, one of the last major stands of the species anywhere after Dutch elm disease wiped out most of the country's street elms starting in the 1930s. A third elm, gnarled and wide canopied at the park's East 97th Street entrance, is old enough that nobody recorded its planting year. Two rival candidates for the park's single oldest tree, a multi-trunked London plane by the Reservoir and a black tupelo in the Ramble, disagree by only four years and neither comes with proof. Between them stands a small grove of Lebanon cedars planted for a family's grandchildren, and 35 Yoshino cherry trees whose planting predates the more famous gift Washington DC received the same year, 1912. All are free to see, every day, dawn to dusk.
All 7 stand in New York, which maps 20 remarkable trees in total.
The Great Elm of Central Park West long-established, exact planting date undocumented
American Elm (Ulmus americana). Central Park once had roughly 500 American elms along its western edge.
The Elms on the Rocks long-established, exact planting date undocumented
American Elm (Ulmus americana). Two American elms grow straight out of exposed bedrock east of Central Park's Mall, their roots spread flat across the rock like something poured rather than planted.
The London Plane of the Reservoir not documented, possibly planted around 1862
London Plane (Platanus x acerifolia). A tree with more than one trunk is hard to age by the usual rule of thumb, and that uncertainty is most of this one's story.
The Yoshino Cherries of the Reservoir not documented; the planting traces to a 1912 gift from Japan
Yoshino Cherry (Prunus x yedoensis). Everyone knows Washington's cherry trees came from Japan in 1912.
The Elm Allee of Literary Walk about 100 years (planted in the 1920s, the third planting on this site)
American Elm (Ulmus americana). Central Park's most photographed avenue of trees is not the original one.
The Cedar of Lebanon Grove near Conservatory Water not documented
Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani). Central Park's own Conservancy calls this a single cedar of Lebanon.
Opening times and visitor information: Central Park.
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