The land comprising

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

holds approximately 5.2 million

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

s and 168 different tree species, as of 2020. The

New York City government The government of New York City, headquartered at New York City Hall in Lower Manhattan, is organized under the New York City Charter and provides for a Mayor–council government, mayor-council system. The Mayor of New York City, mayor is electe ...

, alongside an assortment of

environmental organization An environmental organization is an organization coming out of the conservation or environmental movements that seeks to protect, analyse or monitor the environment against misuse or degradation from human forces. In this sense the environme ...

s, actively work to plant and maintain the trees. As of 2020, New York City held 44,509 acres of urban tree canopy with 24% of its land covered in trees.

History of trees in New York City

Trees have grown continuously on the mainland and islands that now comprise New York City since the end of the

Pleistocene epoch The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

. Trees have inhabited the lands in or around what is now New York City for over 300 million years, far before the existence of humanity. The first human settlement in the NYC area is dated as early as 9,000 years ago, this marked the beginning of human's permanently altering the

old-growth forest An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Natio ...

ecosystem. Humanity's impact of the trees in New York City greatly accelerated with

European colonization of the Americas During the Age of Discovery, a large scale colonization of the Americas, involving a number of European countries, took place primarily between the late 15th century and the early 19th century. The Norse explored and colonized areas of Europe a ...

as the new settlers brought with them advanced metal tools and tree processing technologies paired with an appetite for lumber for domestic use and for export to others of the

Thirteen Colonies The Thirteen Colonies were the British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America which broke away from the British Crown in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), and joined to form the United States of America. The Thirteen C ...

and to the

Old World The "Old World" () is a term for Afro-Eurasia coined by Europeans after 1493, when they became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia in the Eastern Hemisphere, previously ...

. While the Native American population lived off and with the

Northeastern coastal forests The Northeastern coastal forests are a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion of the northeast and middle Atlantic region of the United States. The ecoregion covers an area of 34,630 sq miles (89,691 km2) encompassing the Piedmont ...

relatively

symbiotically Symbiosis (Ancient Greek : living with, companionship < : together; and ''bíōsis'': living) is any type of a close and long-term

The

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

found itself rapidly deforested, New York City included.

Native American use of trees

The Lenape peoples who inhabited the greater NYC area directly prior to

European colonization The phenomenon of colonization is one that stretches around the globe and across time. Ancient and medieval colonialism was practiced by various civilizations such as the Phoenicians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Han Chinese, and A ...

relied on trees for food, shelter, tool materials, fuel, and medicine. The typical Lenape house, called a

longhouse A longhouse or long house is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room building for communal dwelling. It has been built in various parts of the world including Asia, Europe, and North America. Many were built from lumber, timber and ...

, relied on the bending of the trunks taken from small trees to create a series of arches to serve as the frame. The Lenape used prickly-ash (''

Zanthoxylum americanum ''Zanthoxylum americanum'', the common prickly-ash, common pricklyash, common prickly ash or northern prickly-ash (also sometimes called toothache tree, yellow wood, or suterberry), is an aromatic shrub or small tree native to central and easter ...

'') as medicine for toothaches because chewing on the leaves or bark creates a tingling, or numbing effect in the mouth. In 1624, at the time of the founding of

New Amsterdam New Amsterdam (, ) was a 17th-century Dutch Empire, Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''Factory (trading post), fac ...

, huge stands of

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

hickory Hickory is a common name for trees composing the genus ''Carya'', which includes 19 species accepted by ''Plants of the World Online''. Seven species are native to southeast Asia in China, Indochina, and northeastern India (Assam), and twelve ...

, and chestnut trees grew throughout the island of Manhattan. The very name "Manhattan" is recorded as originally referring to a stand of hickory trees with wood suitable for bow-making, located at the southern tip of the island. At this time, the area now known as

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...

was a

Red Maple ''Acer rubrum'', the red maple, also known as swamp maple, water maple, or soft maple, is one of the most common and widespread deciduous trees of eastern and central North America. The U.S. Forest Service recognizes it as the most abundant nati ...

swamp. The

Lenape The Lenape (, , ; ), also called the Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. The Lenape's historica ...

called

Governors Island Governors Island is a island in New York Harbor, within the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located approximately south of Manhattan Island, and is separated from Brooklyn to the east by the Buttermilk ...

: “Pagganck,” which means “nut island,” named after the areas abundance of hickory nut trees. Native Americans made use of fire in ecosystems here as elsewhere, and some of the early Dutch colonists copied this practice. The original forests and ecosystems of 1609 Manhattan have been reconstructed by the Wildlife Conservation Society's

Mannahatta Project The Mannahatta Project is a Wildlife Conservation Society research project in historical ecology led by landscape ecologist Eric W. Sanderson that principally ran for 10 years from 1999-2009, reconstructing the island at the point of first cont ...

Colonial use of trees

Fruit trees imported during the Dutch period included apple, cherry, peach and pear planted in prominent orchards. At the corner of Cherry Street and Franklin Square, was the "Cherry Garden" planted by

David Provost David Provost or David Provoost (January 16, 1670 – 1724) was the 24th mayor of New York City, serving his appointment to the position from 1699 to 1700. Early life David Provost was born at his family's Pearl Street home, near Fulton Str ...

Sr., and later operated by the brewer Richard Sackett as "Sackett's Orchard" with a

beer garden A beer garden (German: ''Biergarten'') is an outdoor area in which beer and food are served, typically at shared tables shaded by trees. Beer gardens originated in Bavaria, of which Munich is the capital city, in the 19th century, and remain co ...

and

bowling green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

later lived at 1 Cherry Street, the location being notable as the nation's first presidential residence. Remnants of the orchard survived into the 1870s, when the last of the trees and Washington's home at 1 Cherry Street, were razed to build the

Brooklyn Bridge The Brooklyn Bridge is a cable-stayed suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River. It w ...

. Lumber in Manhattan during the Dutch period was largely processed at the Sawkill saw mill, worked by a settlement of enslaved Africans.

Contemporary use of trees

In New York City, the harvesting of trees for lumber and the maintaining of orchards for fruit declined as forests and farmland was bought and developed to house the growing population of the city. Parsons Nurseries, a late effort at commercial tree cultivation for ornamental imports, was active in Queens in the late 19th century. Since the late 19th-early 20th century, the functions of the trees planted in the urban landscape and parks of New York City is to provide shade, help manage rainwater runoff, and clean the

air An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

by absorbing some of the carbon dioxide produced by New York City's 18+ million residents. In an effort to maintain and improve its

urban forest Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of peop ...

, New York City runs

tree planting Tree planting is the process of transplanting tree seedlings, generally for forestry, land reclamation, or landscaping purposes. It differs from the transplantation of larger trees in arboriculture and from the lower-cost but slower and les ...

efforts through the Parks Department. As of 2020,

New York City Department of Parks and Recreation The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, also called the Parks Department or NYC Parks, is the department of the government of New York City responsible for maintaining the city's parks system, preserving and maintaining the ecolog ...

is the steward of most of the 2.5+ million trees growing within New York City. The
New York City Tree Map
' is an interactive map by the parks department that catalogues more than 850,000 trees in the city. The NYC Department of Parks observes

Earth Day Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally through earthday.org (formerly Earth Day Network) includin ...

and

Arbor Day Arbor Day (or Arbour Day in some countries) is a Secularity, secular day of observance in which individuals and groups are encouraged to plant trees. Today, many countries observe such a holiday. Though usually observed in the spring, the date v ...

. Street trees as a metaphor for urban life were popularized in the 1943 novel '' A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.'' The tallest and oldest tree in New York City is a

tulip poplar ''Liriodendron tulipifera''—known as the tulip tree, American tulip tree, tulipwood, tuliptree, tulip poplar, whitewood, fiddletree, lynn-tree, hickory-poplar, and yellow-poplar—is the North American representative of the two-species genus ...

growing in Queens named the Queens Giant. Between 2010 and 2017, the city's tree canopy increased by 1.7%.

Old-growth forests

Tracts of trees that have been characterized as

include the Thain Family Forest at the New York Botanical Garden (largest in the city), as well as parts of Hunter Island in Pelham Bay Park, Midwood Forest in Prospect Park, Northwest Woods in Van Cortlandt Park, Shorakapok Preserve in

Inwood Hill Park Inwood Hill Park is a public park in the Inwood, Manhattan, Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. On a high schist ridge that rises above the Hudson River from Dyckm ...

, Alley Pond Park and Forest Park. A number of the old growth remnants in New York City are preserved as Forever Wild preserves.

Notable trees

In 1985, a community nominations process led to the selection of sixty-five "Great Trees", and in the 21st century some of these were cloned through cuttings. In October 2024, NYC Parks released another list of 120 great trees, its first such list since 1985.

Notable living trees

Notable deceased trees

Trees growing in New York City

For a full list including street trees of New York City, as well as trees planted in

New York City parks This is a list of New York City parks. Three entities manage parks within New York City, each with its own responsibilities: * Federal – US National Park Service (NPS) - both open-space and historic properties * State – New York State Offic ...

and public spaces, see this article: list of tree species of New York City.

10 most common street trees in New York City

Arboreta An arboretum (: arboreta) is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees and shrubs of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, many modern arbor ...
in New York City

References

{{reflist

External links

New York City Tree Map

Environmental issues in New York City Air pollution in New York City History of New York City