Spencer J. Roemer Arboretum

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Spencer J. Roemer Arboretum

The Spencer J. Roemer Arboretum is a 20-acre natural area on the south end of the SUNY Geneseo campus. The land comprising the Spencer J. Spencer J.

Roemer Arboretum was owned by the Wadsworth family of Geneseo since 1790. It was used as pasture until the 1960s, when it became part of the SUNY Geneseo campus. Roemer served as Director of Admissions from 1964 to 1977 and continued to be active in campus life after retirement, including service on the Geneseo Campus Environmental Improvement Program Committee. As a member of this committee, he r

ecommended that the campus establish an arboretum, and identified the 20-acre area previously owned by the Wadsworths to be a promising site, especially because it contained some magnificent oaks over 200 years in age. He made a substantial donation to the college to establish an endowment that would maintain this area as an outdoor classroom and laboratory to serve students, faculty, and the community and preserve the natural heritage of the Genesee Valley. Until his death in 1997, Dr. Roemer was actively engaged in maintaining, improving, and promoting the Arboretum.

08/24/2026

Lots of interesting mushrooms popping up in our woods!

07/28/2026

Last week was National Moth Week - so today we recognize a fascinating moth that inhabits our native gardens. Introducing the camouflage looper, a member of the family Geometridae (the inchworms). This flower-feeding caterpillar disguises itself by attaching bits of plant material to the spikes on its body with silk. It thus blends in with its background and can avoid detection by predators. Here are a few found in the Arboretum's entrance garden this past week. You can see more examples of its many disguises on this page: http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/species.php?hodges=7058 SUNY Geneseo SUNY Geneseo Office of Sustainability

07/23/2026

Check out some of the beautiful and interesting plants blooming in the Arboretum native gardens now! SUNY Geneseo SUNY Geneseo Office of Sustainability

07/17/2026

A monarch butterfly found the butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) in the Arboretum entrance garden! Here's one of her offspring chowing down. SUNY Geneseo SUNY Geneseo Office of Sustainability

07/04/2026

Scarlet bee balm (Monarda didyma) is putting on its own show for the 4th in the Arboretum garden. Hopefully some hummingbirds find it! SUNY Geneseo SUNY Geneseo Office of Sustainability

06/26/2026

The 2026 Pollinator of the Year is swallowtail butterflies! These are important visitors of many flowering plants. Some have very specific host plant requirements. Check out some of the swallowtails observed in the Arboretum. SUNY Geneseo SUNY Geneseo Office of Sustainability

06/24/2026

It's Pollinator Week! Today we'll explore another important step to supporting pollinators - providing nest sites. SUNY Geneseo SUNY Geneseo Office of Sustainability

06/23/2026

It;s Pollinator Week! The Xerces Society (which focuses on invertebrate conservation) recommends 4 main steps for supporting pollinators. The first one is to grow a diversity of pollinator-friendly flowers with bloom times throughout the growing season: https://xerces.org/bring-back-the-pollinators/grow-pollinator-friendly-flowers. We do that in the Arboretum's native gardens! SUNY Geneseo SUNY Geneseo Office of Sustainability

06/12/2026

What's blooming now in our native plant gardens in the Arboretum SUNY Geneseo

06/10/2026

It's New York Invasive Species Awareness Week! (https://nyis.info/nyisaw/) Our Arboretum interns are taking advantage of softer soils after the recent rain to pull up Dame's rocket and garlic mustard, two invasives we want to catch in the spring and early summer before they start releasing their seeds. While the plants are short-lived (two-year lifespans) their seeds can remain viable in the seed bank for at least 5 years. Through annual pulling, we have successfully eliminated garlic mustard from most of our forest's understory. SUNY Geneseo SUNY Geneseo Office of Sustainability

Address

SUNY Geneseo
Geneseo, NY
14454

Website

https://www.geneseo.edu/arboretum

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