Old Willow is back on Penn State’s campus. Why the landmark is ‘truly something special’
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After three years in a greenhouse, one of Penn State’s oldest and most beloved landmarks has returned to campus.
Dozens of students, staff and community members gathered on Penn State’s Old Main lawn Friday afternoon to witness the replanting of Old Willow. The weeping willow tree has been a fixture at the University Park campus since 1859 when Professor William Warring planted it. According to Penn State legend, the university’s first president, Evan Pugh, obtained the original cutting from the garden of English poet Alexander Pope.
Ever since a windstorm knocked down the tree in March 2021, horticulture technicians from the Office of the Physical Plant have been caring for and tending to cuttings from the tree at an on-campus nursery.
But 2021 wasn’t the first time Old Willow has been replanted. The sapling planted on Friday is the tree’s fourth iteration. The original tree was planted in 1859 but fell in a 1923 windstorm. A cutting from the original tree had been planted in 1914 and lived until the 1970s, when the third generation of the willow replaced it.
After three years in a nursery, the 15-foot tall tree was transferred back to Old Main lawn to be replanted. Students from the environmental club EcoAction, including club president and Penn State junior Grace Wills, helped to plant the tree.
“This tree planting is truly special because EcoAction has traditionally planted a tree every year,” Wills said. “But having the opportunity to plant the fourth generation of Old Willow is truly something special. ... Old Willow was brought over and it represents a symbol of our university’s landscaping as being one of the first trees here on our campus.”
In a speech, Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi thanked the Office of the Physical Plant, as well as the students of the EcoAction for the work in replanting the tree.
“We live on in the memories we leave behind,” Bendapudi said. “We live on in whether we were good stewards of the resources we’ve been given and are we taking care of them for future generations. I applaud you as a generation for the care you give to our natural resources and where they are going.”
After the planting, community members were invited to sign a drawing of the original Old Willow to commemorate the tree’s fourth generation.
And University Park may not be the only Penn State campus with Old Willow in the future, as the Office of the Physical Plant has grown more than 30 descendants of Old Willow for planting at other Penn State commonwealth campuses.
Tom Flynn, a landscape architect with the Office of the Physical Plant, explained how special it was to help to grow the next generation of Old Willow.
“I’m incredibly, incredibly proud,” Flynn said. “I’m a tree nerd, I love all of our trees. But just being part of this is just really amazing, especially with the student involvement.”
