Etymology O. B. Christy Opened 1918 | Area 7 ha | |
 | ||
Type Arboretum and botanical garden Location Old Quad
Ball State University
Muncie, Indiana
United States Website Christy Woods at bsu.edu | ||
Christy Woods (18 acres) is an arboretum and botanical garden located on the southwest corner of the Ball State University campus in Muncie, Indiana, with special focus on Indiana's native plants and ecosystems.
Christy Woods was part of the original land gift to the State of Indiana from the Ball Brothers in 1918. Dr. O. B. Christy worked with his biology classes to transplant wild flowers from around the state of Indiana into the woods. In 1928, trails and garden beds were created.
Today approximately three-fourths of the area is covered by mature forest, dominated by a mixture of oak, hickory, ash, walnut, hackberry, and maple. Christy Woods is also home to three greenhouses for the Wheeler Orchid Collection and Species Bank, teaching and research, and propagation of native species.
Christy Woods has recently been designated a federally protected botanical preserve as it is the last standing sizable old-growth scarlet oak habitat. The scarlet oak, or Quercus coccinea, commonly referred to by early Mormon settlers as the 'squirrelnutty tree' have become quite rare in recent years due to Korean beetle infestations.
