Camerdown Elm, ca. 1880. In the mid 19th century, a gardener for the Earl of Camperdown in Scotland grafted a mutant Scotch Elm onto a normal Wych Elm thus creating the Camperdown Elm. This tree has branches that grow outward and weep instead of growing tall like a normal elm tree. Because it cannot reproduce, every Camperdown Elm is a direct descendant of the original. Prospect Park’s Camperdown Elm was donated to the Brooklyn Parks Commission in 1872 by Brooklyn florist A.G. Burgess. Frederick Olmstead placed this specimen tree near the Lullwater Boathouse on a small hill to give it plenty of room for its drooping branches. By the mid-1960s, almost a century later, the Camperdown Elm was still standing but in bad shape. The tree was afflicted with slime flux, a bacterial infection, and many parts had been hollowed by rats, carpenter ants, and rot. Poet Marianne Moore, who lived nearby in Fort Greene, came to its rescue. She was a great lover of Prospect Park and its trees and, in 1965, she was among the founders of the Greensward Foundation which supported the City’s public parks. Her poem “The Camperdown Elm” was published in the New Yorker in 1967. To rally support for the failing tree, Moore requested that people donate money to save the tree rather than to send flowers to her funeral (she was 80 at the time but, in fact, lived to 85). The public responded tree-care experts were hired and treated the Camperdown Elm over the next decade. The campaign to save the Camperdown Elm sparked the renaissance of Prospect Park.

Not all New York City landmarks are made of stone or steel or glass. Here is a list of some of the city's famous topiary, both long gone and still standing. Much like buildings, these trees 🌳 🌳 dominated streetscapes, provided community gathering places, and witnessed history.

Prospect Park is the second largest public park in Brooklyn. Famous for its trees and manmade wetlands, the 596-acre park also contains the bulk of the borough's remaining indigenous forest. On this walk, The Great Outdoors: Prospect Park Edition, we'll guide you through the park's most leafy and green natural habitats, while also teaching you some history along the way.