About Washington Square
Washington Square, a 6.4-acre open space park, is one of the original five squares established as public green spaces in Philadelphia’s civic architecture by William Penn’s surveyor Thomas Holme. Formerly a burial ground, within it now are the memorial to George Washington and unknown fallen soldiers during the American Revolution. Today, it is managed by the National Park Service as part of Independence National Historic Park with the support and collaboration of the Society Hill Civic Association. Washington Square is well-regarded for its tree-lined pathways and historical significance, designated a Level One International Arboretum and contains over thirty varieties of trees.
About Paul Meyer
Paul Meyer is retired as The F. Otto Haas Executive Director of the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania. He played a major role in the Arboretum’s restoration of its historic gardens, architecture, and vistas with notable plant collections. He has taught Urban Horticulture in the University of Pennsylvania’s Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning Department and is a frequent contributor to horticultural publications. Meyer is a leader in the field of plant exploration and evaluation. He has completed twelve expeditions to countries including China, Korea, Taiwan, Armenia and the Republic of Georgia, where he has collected plants from various sources to introduce greater genetic diversity. He has received recognition for his leadership and accomplishments at both the Morris Arboretum and in the public garden community. Recent awards include the Wyck-Strickland Award in 2010, the Award of Merit from the American Public Gardens Association in 2013, the Liberty Hyde Bailey Award from the American Horticultural Society in 2014 and the Montgomery County 2016 Planning Advocate Award. Meyer is a co-author of Philadelphia Trees: A Field Guide to the City and the Surrounding Delaware Valley (Spring 2017).
About Anthony Aiello
Anthony Aiello is Associate Director, Collections at Longwood Gardens, where he participates in tree conservation, plant exploration and evaluation, and collections development. Previously he served for 22 years as the Gayle E. Maloney Director of Horticulture and Curator at the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania, where he has managed the Morris Arboretum’s historic gardens and living collections. These positions have allowed him to travel throughout the U.S., Europe, China, and Japan to find novel plants suitable for growing in the Delaware Valley. He has a B.S. from Cornell University and M.S. from Purdue University and for many years chaired the North America-China Plant Exploration Consortium (NACPEC) and participated in the APGA’s taxonomy and plant collections committees.
About Philadelphia Trees
Philadelphia Trees: A Field Guide to the City and the Surrounding Delaware Valley is a pocket-sized resource for identifying the native trees, commonly encountered exotics, and popular ornamentals of the Philadelphia metropolitan area and adjacent counties in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Each of the 118 tree-identification entries features a description of a tree species or several related species; a list of places to see specimens; individual photos of leaves, bark, fruits, and seeds; striking portrait photos; and winter-silhouette drawings.
