The Morton Arb

Trees & Gardens

Use our Interactive Collections Map and our Plant Collections Map to identify where plants are located on our grounds.

Explore our Plant Database

Integrated data of The Morton Arboretum's living collections, herbarium, interactive collections map, and photographs. Search database

How Plants are Named
The words in the scientific name of a plant all mean something. Learn how plants get such interesting names. Click here

How To Read a Plant Label at the Arboretum

Geographic Groups

No flash and/or javascript

Plants of Korea: The Land of Morning Calm

Korea's plant landscape features deciduous hardwood forests dominated by maples, oaks, and hornbeams that are adapted to hot humid summers and long cold winters. Explore these flourishing Korean plants that now call Illinois their home.

Korean Maple at The Morton Arboretum

The Korean Peninsula is in North-East Asia and is about the size of Pennsylvania. Described as the "Hermit Kingdom" and "Land of Morning Calm", the country boasts 5,000 years of rich history and culture. However, the country's diverse woody plants, totaling over 1,300 species, were not well known by western botanists until the early twentieth century.

The wealth of Korean plants began to appear in North American gardens when Ernest H. Wilson, a renowned plant collector, explored the country in 1917. Following Wilson, many American horticulturists have explored the country in pursuit of new and hardy plants for North American gardens. Over 160 different kinds of plants are assembled in this  collection (established in 1959) and represent the floristic diversity of the country.

The collection can be enjoyed throughout the seasons. In May, look for dainty white flowers of Oyama magnolia (Magnolia sieboldii), enjoy the brilliant fall color of the three-flowered maple (Acer triflorum ), and in winter look for attractive peeling bark of Dahurian birch (Betula davurica). In this collection you can see endemic species (those that occur only in Korea), including white-forsythia (Abeliophyllum distichum), Korean fir (Abies koreana), Korean maackia (Maackia fauriei), and Korean stewartia (Stewartia koreana).